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THE LIFE AND ROMANCES OF 
MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 



BY 

GEORGE FRISBIE WHICHER, Ph.D. 

INSTRUCTOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 




$frfo fork 

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 

1915 

All rights reserved 



\ J 



,* 



Copyright, 1915 
By Columbia University Press 



Printed from type August, 1915 



:*,/« 



PRESS OF 

The Mew Era Printins company 
Lancaster. Pa. 



SEP 30 1915 

©CU411759 



This Monograph has been approved by the Depart- 
ment of English and Comparative Literature in Columbia 
University as a contribution to knowledge worthy of 

publication. 

A. H. THORNDIKE, 

Executive Officer 



PREFACE 

The purpose of the following study is not to revive the 
reputation of a forgotten author or to suggest that Mrs. 
Haywood may yet "come into her own." For the lover of 
eighteenth century fashions her numerous pages have in- 
deed a stilted, early Georgian charm, but with the passing 
of Ramillies wigs and velveteen small-clothes the popularity 
of her novels vanished once for all. She had her world in 
her time, but that world and time disappeared with the 
French Revolution. 1 Now even professed students of the 
novel shrink from reading many of her seventy odd volumes, 
nor can the infamous celebrity conferred by Pope's attack 
in "The Dunciad" save her name from oblivion. But the 
significance of Mrs. Haywood's contributions cannot safely 
be ignored. Her romances of palpitating passion written 
between 1720 and 1730 formed a necessary complement to 
Defoe's romances of adventure exactly as her Duncan 
Campbell pamphlets supplied the one element lacking in 
his. The domestic novels of her later life foreshadowed 
the work of Miss Burney and Miss Austen, while her career 
as a woman of letters helped to open a new profession to her 

i Through the kindness of Professor J. M. Clapp I am provided 
with the following evidence of the decline of Eliza Haywood's popu- 
larity. In W. Bent's General Catalogue of BooJcs (1786) fourteen 
of her productions are advertised, namely: Works, 4 vols; Clementina; 
Balinda; Epistles for the Ladies; La Belle Assemblee; Female 
Spectator; Fortunate Foundlings; Fruitless Enquiry; Jemmy and 
Jenny Jessamy; Betsy Throughtless ; The Husband; Invisible Spy; 
Life's Progress through the Passions; Virtuous Villager. In 1791 
only four — Clementina; Balinda; Female Spectator; Jemmy and 
Jenny Jessamy — appeared in Bent's London Catalogue, and of these 
the first two had fallen in value from 3/6 to 3 shillings. 



viil PREFACE 

sex. Since even the weakest link in the development of a 
literary form is important, I have endeavored to provide 
future historians of English fiction with a compact and ac- 
curate account of this pioneer "lady novelist." 

Hitherto the most complete summary of Mrs. Haywood's 
life and writings has been Sir Sidney Lee's article in the 
"Dictionary of National Biography/' which adds much in- 
formation not found in the earlier notices in Baker's "Bi- 
ographia Dramatica" and Chalmers' "Biographical Dic- 
tionary." The experienced palates of Mr. Edmund Gosse 
and Mr. Austin Dobson have tested the literary qualities 
respectively of the earlier and later aspects of her work. 
Professor Walter Raleigh, Dr. Charlotte E. Morgan, and 
Professor Saintsbury have briefly estimated the importance 
of her share in the change from romance to novel. 

Perhaps the main reason for the inadequacy of these no- 
tices lies in the fact that no one library contains anything 
like a complete collection of Mrs. Haywood's innumerable 
books. In pursuit of odd items I have ransacked the British 
Museum, the Bodleian, and several minor literary museums 
in England, and in America the libraries of Columbia, 
Harvard, Yale, and Brown Universities, the Peabody Insti- 
tute, and the University of Chicago. The search has en- 
abled me to correct many inaccuracies in Miss Morgan's 
tentative list of prose fiction and even to supplement Mr. 
Esdaile's admirable "List of English Tales and Prose Ro- 
mances printed before 1740," which mentions only works 
now extant in British libraries. 

In the Bibliography I have adopted an alphabetical ar- 
rangement as most convenient for ready reference. Under 
the various editions of each book I have referred to libraries, 
English or American, where copies are to be found. Or 
when no copy was to be had, I have referred to advertise- 
ments, either in the newspapers of the Burney Collection, 



PREFACE IX 

in the "Gentleman's Magazine," the "Monthly," or the 
"Critical," or in the catalogues of modern booksellers. In 
the Chronological List I have dated each work from the 
earliest advertisement of its publication. 

Naturally I have incurred obligations to scholars who 
have previously passed over the same little-cultivated terri- 
tory. Mr. Arundell Esdaile of the British Museum staff 
both facilitated the course of my investigations in England 
by valuable suggestions and cheered it by his cordial hos- 
pitality. To Professors R. P. Utter of Amherst, J. M. 
Clapp of Lake Forest College, A. H. Upham of Miami Uni- 
versity, and A. H. Thorndike of Columbia I am indebted 
for friendly advice, encouragement, and helpful criticism. 
And above all my thanks are due to Professor W. P. Trent, 
whose love of eighteenth century letters suggested the sub- 
ject of this research, whose sage and kindly supervision 
fostered the work through every stage in its development, 
and for whose forthcoming "Life and Times of Daniel 
Defoe" this monograph is intended as a footnote. 

G. F. W. 
Urbana. Illinois. 



CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

I. Eliza Havwood's Life 1 

II. Short Romances op Passion 27 

III. The Duncan Campbell Pamphlets 77 

IV. Secret Histories and Scandal Novels 92 

V. The Heroine of ' ' The Dunciad " 117 

VI. Letters and Essays 132 

VII. Later Fiction : The Domestic Novel 151 

VIII. Conclusion 171 

Bibliography 176 

Chronological List 201 

Index 205 



THE LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. 
ELIZA HAYWOOD 

CHAPTER I 

ELIZA HAYWOOD'S LIFE 

Autobiography was almost the only form of writing not 
attempted by Eliza Haywood in the course of her long 
career as an adventuress in letters. Unlike Mme de Villedieu 
or Mrs. Manley she did not publish the story of her life 
romantically disguised as the Secret History of Eliza, nor 
was there One of the Fair Sex (real or pretended) to 
chronicle her "strange and surprising adventures" or to 
print her passion-stirring epistles, as had happened with 
Mrs. Aphra Behn's fictitious exploits and amorous corre- 
spondence. 1 Indeed the first biographer of Mrs. Haywood 2 
hints that "from a supposition of some improper liberties 
being taken with her character after death by the inter- 
mixture of truth and falsehood with her history," the ap- 
prehensive dame had herself suppressed the facts of her 
life by laying a "solemn injunction on a person who was 
well acquainted with all the particulars of it, not to com- 
municate to any one the least circumstance relating to her. ' ' 
The success of her precaution is evident in the scantiness of 
our information about her. The few details recorded in 
the "Biographia Dramatica" can be amplified only by a 

iE. Bernbaum, Mrs. Behn's Biography a Fiction, PMLA, XXVIII, 
432. 

2 David Erskine Baker, Companion to the Play House, 1764. 
2 I 



I LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

tissue of probabilities. Consequently Mrs. Haywood's one 
resemblance to Shakespeare is the obscurity that covers the 
events of her life. 

She was born in London, probably in 1693, and her 
father, a man by the name of Fowler, was a small shop- 
keeper. 3 She speaks vaguely of having received an educa- 
tion beyond that afforded to the generality of her sex. Her 
marriage to Valentine Haywood, 4 a clergyman at least fif- 
teen years older than his spouse, took place before she was 
twenty, for the Register of St. Mary Aldermary records on 
3 December, 1711, the christening of Charles, son of Valen- 
tine Haywood, clerk, and Elizabeth his wife. Her husband 
held at this time a small living in Norfolk, and had 
recently been appointed lecturer of St. Mathews, Friday 
Street. Whether the worthy cleric resided altogether in 
London and discharged his duties in the country by proxy, 
or whether Mrs. Haywood, like Tristram Shandy's mother, 
enjoyed the privilege of coming to town only on certain 
interesting occasions, are questions which curious research 

3 The London Parish Registers contain no mention of an Eliza 
Fowler in 1693, but on 21 January, 1689, O. S., "Elizabeth dau. 
of Robert ffowler & Elizabeth his wife ' ' was christened at St. Peter 's, 
Cornhill. Later entries show that Robert was a hosier to his trade'. 
Possibly in suppressing the other particulars of her life, Mrs. Hay- 
wood may have consigned to oblivion a year or two of her age, but 
in her numerous writings I have not found any allusion that could 
lead to her positive identification with the daughter of Robert 
Fowler. 

* He was the author of An Examination of Dr. Clarice's Scripture- 
Doctrine of the Trinity, with a Confutation of it (1719). The work 
is a paragraph by paragraph refutation from the authority of scrip- 
ture of the Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity (1712) by the meta- 
physical Dr. Samuel Clarke, whose unorthodox views prevented Queen 
Caroline from making him Archbishop of Canterbury. The Reverend 
Mr. Haywood was upon safe ground in attacking a book already 
condemned in Convocation. 



eliza haywood's life 3 

fails to satisfy. At any rate, one of the two children as- 
signed to her by tradition was born, as we have seen, in 
London. 

No other manifestation of their nuptial happiness ap- 
peared until 7 January, 1721, on which date the "Post 
Boy" contained an Advertisement of the elopement of Mrs. 
Eliz. Haywood, wife of Rev. Valentine Haywood. 5 The 
causes of Eliza's flight are unknown. Our only knowledge 
of her temperament in her early life comes from a remark 
by Nichols that the character of Sappho in the "Tatler" 6 
may be "assigned with . . . probability and confidence, to 
Mrs. Elizabeth Heywood, who . . . was in all respects just 
such a character as is exhibited here. ' ' Sappho is described 
by Steele as "a fine lady, who writes verses, sings, dances, 
and can say and do whatever she pleases, without the impu- 
tation of any thing that can injure her character ; for she is 
so well known to have no passion but self-love, or folly but 
affectation, that now, upon any occasion, they only cry, 'It is 
her way ! ' and ' That is so like her ! ' without farther reflec- 
tion." She quotes a "wonderfully just" passage from 
Milton, calls a licentious speech from Dryden's "State of 
Innocence" an "odious thing," and says "a thousand good 
things at random, but so strangely mixed, that you would 
be apt to say, all her wit is mere good luck, and not the 
effect of reason and judgment." In the second paper 
Sappho quotes examples of generous love from Suckling 
and Milton, but takes offence at a letter containing some 

s ' ' Whereas Elizabeth Haywood, Wife of the Keverend Mr. Valen- 
tine Haywood, eloped from him her Husband on Saturday the 26th 
of November last past, and went away without his Knowledge and 
Consent: This is to give Notice to all Persons in general, That if 
any one shall trust her either with Money or Goods, or if she shall 
contract Debts of any kind whatsoever, the said Mr. Haywood will 
not pay the same." 

6 Tatler, No. 6 and No. 40. 



4 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

sarcastic remarks on married women. We know that Steele 
was personally acquainted with Mrs. Manley, and it is 
possible that he knew Mrs. Haywood, since she later dedi- 
cated a novel to him. With some reservation, then, we may 
accept this sketch as a fair likeness. As a young matron 
of seventeen or eighteen she was evidently a lively, uncon- 
ventional, opinionated gadabout fond of the company of 
similar She-romps, who exchanged verses and specimen let- 
ters with the lesser celebrities of the literary world and per- 
petuated the stilted romantic traditions of the Matchless 
Orinda and her circle. A woman of her independence of 
mind, we may imagine, could not readily submit to the 
authority of an arbitrary, orthodox clergyman husband. 

Mrs. Haywood's writings are full of the most lively 
scenes of marital infelicity due to causes ranging from 
theological disputes to flagrant licentiousness. Her enemies 
were not so charitable as to attribute her flight from her 
husband to any reason so innocent as incompatibility of 
temper or discrepancy of religious views. The position of 
ex-wife was neither understood nor tolerated by contem- 
porary society. In the words of a favorite quotation from 
"Jane Shore": 

"But if weak Woman chance to go astray, 
If strongly charm 'd she leave the thorny Way, 
And in the softer Paths of Pleasure stray, 
Ruin ensues, Reproach and endless Shame; 
And one false Step entirely damns her Fame: 
In vain, with Tears, the Loss she may deplore, 
In vain look back to what she was before, 
She sets, like Stars that fall, to rise no more!" 

Eliza Haywood, however, after leaving the thorny way of 
matrimony, failed to carry out the laureate's metaphor. 
Having less of the fallen star in her than Mr. Rowe 
imagined, and perhaps more of the hen, she refused to set, 



eliza haywood's life 5 

but resolutely faced the world, and in spite of all rules of 
decorum, tried to earn a living for herself and her two 
children, if indeed as Pope's slander implies, she had chil- 
dren to support. 

The ways in which a woman could win her bread outside 
the pale of matrimony were extremely limited. A stage 
career, connected with a certain degree of infamy, had been 
open to the sex since Restoration times, and writing for the 
theatre had been successfully practiced by Mrs. Behn, Mrs. 
Manley, Mrs. Centlivre, Mrs. Pix, and Mrs. Davys. The 
first two female playwrights mentioned had produced beside 
their dramatic works a number of pieces of fiction, and 
Mrs. Mary Hearne, Mrs. Jane Barker, and Mrs. Sarah 
Butler had already gained a milder notoriety as romancieres. 
Poetry, always the elegant amusement of polite persons, had 
not yet proved profitable enough to sustain a woman of 
letters. Eliza Haywood was sufficiently catholic in her 
taste to attempt all these means of gaining reputation and 
a livelihood, and tried in addition a short-lived experiment 
as a publisher. Beside these literary pursuits we know not 
what obscure means for support she may have found from 
time to time. 

Her first thought, however, was apparently of the theatre, 
where she had already made her debut on the stage of the 
playhouse in Smock Alley (Orange Street), Dublin during 
the season of 1715, as Chloe in ' ' Timon of Athens ; or, the 
Man-Hater. ' ' T One scans the dramatis personae of ' ' Timon ' ' 
in vain for the character of Chloe, until one recalls that the 
eighteenth century had no liking for Shakespeare undefiled. 
The version used by the Theatre Royal was, of course, the 
adaptation by Thomas Shadwell, in which Chloe appears 
chiefly in Acts II and III as the maid and confidant of the 
courtesan Melissa. Both parts were added by Og. The 

t W. E. Chetwood, A General History of the Stage, 56. 



6 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

role of Cleon was taken by Quin, later an interpreter of 
Mrs. Haywood's own plays. But if she formed a connec- 
tion with either of the London theatres after leaving her 
husband, the engagement was soon broken off, and her sub- 
sequent appearances as an actress in her comedy of "A 
Wife to be Lett" (1723) and in Hatchett's "Rival Father" 
(1730) were due in the one case to an accident and in the 
other to her friendship for the playwright. 

She herself, according to the "Biographia Dramatica," 
when young "dabbled in dramatic poetry; but with no 
great success." The first of her plays, a tragedy entitled 
"The Fair Captive," was acted the traditional three times 
at Lincoln's Inn Fields, beginning 4 March, 1721. 8 Aaron 
Hill contributed a friendly epilogue. Quin took the part 
of Mustapha, the despotic vizier, and Mrs. Seymour played 
the heroine. On 16 November it was presented a fourth 
time for the author 's benefit, 9 then allowed to die. Shortly 
after the first performance the printed copy made its ap- 
pearance. In the "Advertisement to the Reader" Mrs. 
Haywood exposes the circumstances of her turning play- 
wright, naively announcing: 

" To attempt any thing in .Vindication of the following Scenes, 
wou'd cost me more Time than the Composing 'em took me up. . . . 

" This Tragedy was originally writ by Capt. Hurst, and by him 
deliver' d to Mr. Rich, to be acted soon after the opening of the 
New House; 10 but the Season being a little too far elaps'd for 
the bringing it on then, and the Author oblig'd to leave the King- 
dom, Mr. Rich became the Purchaser of it, and the Winter fol- 
lowing order' d it into Rehearsal : but found it so unfit for Repre- 
sentation, that for a long time he laid aside all thoughts of mak- 

s Genest, III, 59. 
9 Genest, III, 73. 

io John Kich opened the New Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields dur- 
ing December, 1714. 



ELIZA HAYWOOD'S LIFE 7 

ing any thing of it, till last January he gave rne the History of 
his Bargain, and made me some Proposals concerning the new 
modelling it : but however I was prevail'd upon, I cannot say my 
Inclination had much share in my Consent. . . . On Reading, I 
found I had much more to do than I expected; every Character I 
was oblig'd to find employment for, introduce one entirely new, 
without which it had been impossible to have guessed at the Design 
of the Play; and in fine, change the Diction so wholly, that, ex- 
cepting in the Parts of Alphonso and Isabella, there remains not 
twenty lines of the Original." 

The plot, which is too involved to be analyzed, centers about 
the efforts of Alphonso to redeem his beloved Isabella from 
the harem of the Vizier Mustapha. Spaniards, Turks, 
keepers and inhabitants of the harem, and a "young lady 
disguis'd in the habit of an Eunuch," mingle in inextri- 
cable intrigue. Some of the worst absurdities and the most 
bathetic lines occur in the parts of the two lovers for which 
Mrs. Haywood disclaims responsibility, but even the best 
passages of the play add nothing to the credit of the reviser. 
Her next dramatic venture was produced after her novels 
had gained some vogue with the town, as the Prologue 
spoken by Mr. Theophilus Cibber indicates. 

"Criticks! be dumb to-night — no Skill display; 
A dangerous Woman-Poet wrote the Play: . . . 
Measure her Force, by her known Novels, writ 
With manly Vigour, and with Woman's wit. 
Then tremble, and depend, if ye beset her, 
She, who can talk so well, may act yet better. ' ' 

The fair success achieved by "A Wife to be Lett: A 
Comedy," acted at Drury Lane three times, commencing 
12 August, 1723, n is said to have been due largely to the 
curiosity of the public to see the author, who by reason 
of the indisposition of an actress performed in person the 
ii Genest, III, 113. 



8 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

part of the wife, Mrs. Graspall, a character well suited 
to her romping disposition. It is difficult to imagine how 
the play could have succeeded on its own merits, for the 
intricacies of the plot tax the attention even of the reader. 
A certain Ann Minton, however, revived the piece in the 
guise of "The Comedy of a Wife to be Lett, or, the Miser 
Cured, compressed into Two Acts" (1802). " 

Apparently the reception of her comedy was not suffi- 
ciently encouraging to induce Mrs. Haywood to continue 
writing plays, for six years elapsed before she made a third 
effort in dramatic writing with a tragedy entitled, "Fred- 
erick, Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburgh, " which was first 
produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields on 4 March, 1729, 12 and 
shortly afterward published with a dedication to Frederick 
Lewis, Prince of Wales. The intention of the dedication 
was obviously to bid for royal patronage, but the intended 
victim was too astute to be caught. In eulogizing the Em- 
peror Frederick (c. 1400) the author found abundant op- 
portunity to praise by implication his namesake, but unfor- 
tunately for the success of the play none of the royal family 
"vouchsafed to honour it with their Presence." Mrs. Hay- 
wood complains that hers "was the only new Performance 
this Season, which had not received a Sanction from some 
of that illustrious Line," and the "unthinking Part of the 
Town" followed the fashion set by royalty. Unlike "The 
Fair Captive, ' ' which suffered from a plethora of incidents, 
Mrs. Haywood's second tragedy contains almost nothing in 
its five acts but rant. An analysis of the plot is but a sum- 
mary of conversations. 

Act I. The German princes hail Frederick, recently elected 
Emperor. Count Waldec and Ridolpho, in league with the Arch- 
bishop of Metz, conspire against him. Waldec urges his sister 
Adelaid to marry the gallant Wirtemberg. Sophia, her woman 

12 Gene^t, ITT, 241. 



eliza haywood's life 9 

and confidant, also urges her to marry, but Adelaid can only re- 
ply, " I charge thee Peace, Nor join such distant Sounds as Joy 
and Wirtemberg," and during the rest of the act proclaims the 
anguish inspired by her unrequited passion for Frederick, mar- 
ried three years before to a Saxon princess. 

Act II. The conspirators plan to kill Frederick. Adelaid re- 
proaches him for abandoning her. He welcomes his imperial con- 
sort, Anna, and takes occasion to deliver many magnanimous 
sentiments. 

Act III. Adelaid declares that she cannot love Wirtemberg. 
Waldec excites the impatient lover to jealousy of Frederick. Ri- 
dolpho is banished court for murder. 

Act IV. Frederick is distressed by Wirternberg's discontent. 
The Empress, seeking to learn the reason for it, is infected by 
Wirternberg's suspicions. Adelaid overhears Ridolpho and Waldec 
plotting to slay Frederick, but hesitates to accuse her own 
brother. Wirtemberg reproaches her for her supposed yielding 
to Frederick, and resolves to leave her forever. 

Act V. Adelaid, in order to warn him, sends to ask the Em- 
peror to visit her. Waldec intercepts the letter and resolves to 
murder Frederick in her chamber. Wirtemberg learns that he 
has been duped and defends the Emperor. Waldec and Ridolpho 
are killed, though not before they succeed in mortally wounding 
Frederick, who dies amid tears. 

Genest says with truth that the love scenes are dull, and 
that the subject is not well calculated for dramatic repre- 
sentation. The play was acted only the usual three times, 
and fully deserved the deep damnation of its taking off. 

In 1730 Mrs. Haywood took part in the "Rival Father, 
or the Death of Achilles, ' ' written by her friend, the actor 
and playwright William Hatchett, and performed at the 
Haymarket. 13 Three years later she joined with him to 
produce an adaptation of Fielding's "Tragedy of Tragedies, 

13 Biographia Dramatica. The production is mentioned by Genest, 
III. 281. 



10 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great" on the 
model of Gay's popular "Beggar's Opera." The "Opera 
of Operas" follows its original closely with a number of 
condensations and omissions. Almost the only additions 
made by the collaborators were the short lyrics, which were 
set to music by the ingenious Mr. Frederick Lampe. 14 The 
Hatchett-Haywood version was acted at the Haymarket on 
31 May, 1733, and according to Genest, was repeated eleven 
times at least with Mrs. Clive as Queen Dollalolla. 15 It was 
published immediately. On 9 November a performance 
was given at Drury Lane. Although unusually successful, 
it was Mrs. Haywood's last dramatic offering. 16 

The aspiring authoress apparently never found in dra- 
matic writing a medium suitable to her genius, and even 
less was she attracted by a stage career. The reasons for 
her abandoning the theatre to develop' her powers as a 
writer of fiction are stated in a characteristic letter still 
filed among the State Papers. 17 

Sir 

The Stage not answering my Expectation, and the averseness 
of my Relations to it, has made me Turn my Genius another 
Way; I have Printed some Little things which have mett a Better 
Reception then they Deservd, or I Expected: and have now Ven- 

i* W. R. Chetwood, A General History of the Stage, 57. 

is Genest, III, 408. 

16 In Kane O'Hara's later and more popular transformation of 
Tom Thumb into a light opera, the song put into the mouth of the 
dying Grizzle by the first adapters was retained with minor changes. 

"My body's like a bankrupt's shop, 
My creditor is cruel death, 
"Who puts to trade of life a stop, 

And will be paid with this last breath; Oh!" 

Apparently O'Hara made no further use of his predecessors. 
it S. P. Dom. George I, Bundle 22, No. 97. 



eliza haywood's life 11 

tur'd on a Translation to be done by Subscription, the Proposalls 
whereof I take the Liberty to send You : I have been so much us'd 
to Receive favours from You that I can make No Doubt of y r 
forgiveness for this freedom, great as it is, and that You will 
alsoe become one of those Persons, whose Names are a Counte- 
nance to my undertaking. I am mistress of neither, words nor 
happy Turn of thought to Thank You as I ought for the many 
Unmeritted favours You have Conferr'd on me, but beg You to 
believe all that a gratefull Soul can feel, mine does who am Sir 
Yo r most humble & 

most Obedient Ser\ rt 

Eliza Haywood. 
August y e 5 th 1720 

Enclosed with the letter were "Proposals For Printing by 
Subscription A Translation from the French of the Famous 
Monsieur Bursault Containing Ten Letters from a Lady of 
Quality to a Chevalier." 18 The work thus heralded was 
published in the latter part of 1720 by subscription — "three 
shillings each Book in Quires, or five Shillings bound in 
Calf, Gilt Back" — a method never again employed by Mrs. 
Haywood, though in this case it must have succeeded fairly 
well. Three hundred and nine names appeared on her list 
of subscribers, of which one hundred and twenty-three were 
women 's. Few subscribers of either sex were distinguished. 
There were, however, that universal patron of minor authors, 
George Bubb, Esq., later the Doddington to whom Thomson 
dedicated his "Summer"; Mrs. Barker, the novelist; Aaron 
Hill ; a Mr. Osborne, possibly the bookseller whose name 
was afterward infamously connected with Eliza's in "The 

is In spite of the fact that ' ' Translated from the French ' ' ap- 
peared on the title-page, Mrs. Haywood has hitherto been accredited 
with the full authorship of these letters. They were really a loose 
translation of Lettres Nouvelles. . . . Avec Treize Lettres Amoureusea 
d'une Dame a un Cavalier (Second Edition, Paris, 1699) by Edme 
Boursault, and were so advertised in the public prints. 



12 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Dunciad"; Charles de La Faye, the under-secretary of state 
with whom Defoe corresponded ; and a sprinkling of aristo- 
cratic titles. 

The publisher of the. letters was William Rufus Chet- 
wood, later the prompter at Drury Lane Theatre, but then 
just commencing bookseller at the sign of Cato's Head, 
Covent Garden. He had already brought out for Mrs. 
Haywood the first effort of her genius, a romantic tale 
entitled "Love in Excess: or, the Fatal Enquiry." We 
have the author's testimony that the three parts "mett a 
Better Reception then they Deservd, ' ' and indeed the piece 
was extraordinarily successful, running through no less 
than six separate editions before its inclusion in her col- 
lected "Secret Histories, Novels and Poems" in 1725. On 
the last page of "Letters from a Lady of Quality to a 
Chevalier" Chetwood had also advertised for speedy publi- 
cation "a Book entitled, The Danger of giving way to 
Passion, in Five Exemplary Novels: First, The British 
Recluse, or the Secret History of Cleomira, supposed dead. 
Second, The Injur 'd Husband, or the Mistaken Resentment. 
Third, Lasselia, or the Unfortunate Mistress. Fourth, The 
Rash Resolve, or the Untimely Discovery. Fifth, Idalia, or 
the Self -abandon 'd. 19 Written by Mrs. Eliza Haywood." 
During the next three years the five novels were issued singly 
by Chetwood with the help of other booksellers, usually 
Daniel Browne, Jr., and Samuel Chapman. This pair, or 
James Roberts, Chetwood 's successor, published most of 
Mrs. Haywood's early writings. The staple of her output 
during the first decade of authorship was the short amatory 

is Probably a misprint. When the novels appeared, Idalia was 
the Unfortunate Mistress, Lasselia the Self-abandon 'd. Perhaps be- 
cause the work outgrew its original proportions, or because short 
novels found a readier sale, the five were never published under the 
inclusive cautionary caption. 



eliza haywood's life 13 

romance like ' ' Love in Excess ' ' and the ' ' exemplary novels ' ' 
just mentioned. These exercises in fiction were evidently 
composed current e calamo, with little thought and less re- 
vision, for an eager and undiscriminating public. Possibly, 
as Mr. Gosse conjectures, 20 they were read chiefly by mil- 
liners and other women on the verge of literacy. But 
though persons of solid education avoided reading novels 
and eastern tales as they might the drinking of drams, it is 
certain that no one of scanty means could have afforded 
Mrs. Haywood 's slender octavos at the price of one to three 
shillings. The Lady's Library ("Spectator" No. 37) con- 
taining beside numerous romances "A Book of Novels" and 
"The New Atalantis, with a Key to it," which last Lady 
Mary Montagu also enjoyed, and the dissolute country- 
gentleman's daughters ("Spectator" No. 128) who "read 
Volumes of Love-Letters and Romances to their Mother," 
a ci-devant coquette, give us perhaps a more accurate idea 
of the woman novelist 's public. Doubtless Mrs. Haywood 's 
wares were known to the more frothy minds of the polite 
world and to the daughters of middle-class trading families, 
such as the sisters described in Defoe's "Religious Court- 
ship," whose taste for fashionable plays and novels was 
soon to call the circulating library into being. 

Beside the proceeds arising from the sale of her works, 
Mrs. Haywood evidently expected and sometimes received 
the present of a guinea or so in return for a dedication. 
Though patrons were not lacking for her numerous works, 
it does not appear that her use of their names was always 
authorized. In putting "The Arragonian Queen" under 
the protection of Lady Frances Lumley, in fact, the author 

20 E. Gosse, Gossip in a Library, 161, "What Ann Lang Read." 
Only one of Mrs. Haywood's novels, The City Jilt, was ever issued 
in cheap form. T. Bailey, the printer, evidently combined his print- 
ing business with the selling of patent medicines. 



14 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

confessed that she had not the happiness of being known to 
the object of her praise, but wished to be the first to felici- 
tate her publicly upon her nuptials. We may be sure that 
the offering of "Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lunen- 
burgh" to the hero's namesake, Frederick, Prince of Wales, 
was both unsanctioned and unacknowledged. Sometimes, 
however, the writer's language implies that she had already 
experienced the bounty of her patron, while in the case of 
the novel dedicated to Sir Richard Steele at a time when 
his health and credit were fast giving way, Eliza can hardly 
be accused of interested motives. Apparently sincere, too, 
though addressed to a wealthy widow, was the tribute to 
Lady Elizabeth Germain prefixed to "The Fruitless En- 
quiry ' ' ; and at least one other of Mrs. Haywood 's produc- 
tions is known to have been in Lady Betty's library. But 
these instances are decidedly exceptional. Usually the needy 
novelist's dedications were made up of servile adulation 
and barefaced begging. With considerable skill in choosing 
a favorable moment she directed a stream of panegyric 
upon William Yonge (later Sir) within two months after 
his appointment as one of the commissioners of the treasury 
in Great Britain. Soon after Sir Thomas Lombe was made 
a knight, the wife of that rich silk weaver had the pleasure 
of seeing her virtues and her new title in print. And most 
remarkable of all, Lady Elizabeth Henley, who eloped with 
a rake early in 1728, received Mrs. Haywood's congratula- 
tions upon the event in the dedication of "The Agreeable 
Caledonian," published in June, though if we may trust 
Mrs. Delany's account of the mattter, the bride must already 
have had time for repentance. Even grief, the specialist 
in the study of the passions knew, might loosen the purse 
strings, and . accordingly she took the liberty to condole 
with Col. Stanley upon the loss of his wife while entreating 
his favor for ' ' The Masqueraders. ' ' But of all her dedica- 



eliza haywood's life 15 

tions those addressed to her own sex were the most melting, 
and from their frequency were evidently the most fruitful. 

The income derived from patronage, however, was at best 
uncertain and necessitated many applications. To the pub- 
lic, moreover, a novel meant nothing if not something new. 
Eliza Haywood's productiveness, therefore, was enormous. 
When she had settled to her work, the authoress could pro- 
duce little pieces, ranging from sixty to nearly two hundred 
pages in length, with extraordinary rapidity. In 1724, for 
instance, a year of tremendous activity, she rushed into 
print no less than ten original romances, beside translating 
half of a lengthy French work, "La Belle Assemblee" by 
Mme de Gomez. At this time, too, her celebrity had become 
so great that "The Prude, a Novel, written by a Young 
Lady" was dedicated to her, just as Mrs. Hearne at the 
beginning of her career had put a romance, "The Lover's 
Week," under the protection of the famous Mrs. Manley. 
Between 1720 and 1730 Mrs. Haywood wrote, beside plays 
and translations, thirty-eight works of her own composing, 
one in two stout volumes and several in two or more parts. 
If we may judge by the number and frequency of editions, 
most of the indefatigable scribbler's tales found a ready 
sale, while the best of them, such as "Idalia" (1723), "The 
Fatal Secret" (1724), "The Mercenary Lover" (1726), 
"The Fruitless Enquiry" and "Philidore and Placentia" 
(1727), gained for her not a little applause. 

Nor was the young adventuress in letters unhailed by 
literary men. Aaron Hill immediately befriended her by 
writing an epilogue for her first play and another of Hill 's 
circle, the irresponsible Richard Savage, attempted to 
"paint the Wonders of Eliza's Praise" in verses prefixed 
to "Love in Excess" and "The Rash Resolve" (1724). 21 

2i The latter may he read in Savage 's Poems, Cooke 's edition, II, 
162. The complimentary verses first printed before the original issue 



16 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Along with Savage's first complimentary poem were two 
other effusions, in one of which an "Atheist to Love's 
Power" acknowledged his conversion through the force of 
Eliza's revelation of the tender passion, while the other 
expressed with less rapture the same idea. But it re- 
mained for James Sterling, the friend of Concanen, to 
state most vigorously the contemporary estimate of Mrs. 
Haywood and her early writings.- 2 "Great Arbitress of 
Passion ! " he exclaims, 

"Persuasion waits on all your bright Designs, 
And where you point the varying Soul inclines: 
See! Love and Friendship, the fair Theme inspires 
We glow with Zeal, we melt in soft Desires! 
Thro' the dire Labyrinth of Ills we share 
The kindred Sorrows of the gen 'rous Pair ; 
Till, pleas 'd, rewarded Vertue we behold, 
Shine from the Furnace pure as tortur'd Gold: 

of Love in Excess, Part II, and at the front of each successive edi- 
tion, have never been reprinted. A specimen of his praise follows. 

' ' Thy Prose in sweeter Harmony refines, 

Than Numbers flowing thro' the Muse's Lines; 

What Beauty ne'er could melt, thy Touches fire, 

And raise a Musick that can Love inspire; 

Soul-thrilling Accents all our Senses wound, 

And strike with Softness, whilst they charm with Sound! 

When thy Count pleads, what Fair his Suit can fly? 

Or when thy Nymph laments, what Eyes are dry? 

Ev'n Nature's self in Sympathy appears, 

Yields Sigh for Sigh, and melts in equal Tears; 

For such Descriptions thus at once can prove 

The Force of Language, and the Sweets of Love. ' ' 

22 His poem To Mrs. Eliza Haywood on her Writings was hastily 
inserted in the fourth volume of Secret Histories, Novels, and Poems 
when that collection had reached its third edition (1732). In the 
fourth edition of ten years later it stands, with the verses already 
described, at the beginning of Volume I. 



eliza haywood's life 17 

You sit like Heav'n's bright Minister on High, 

Command the throbbing Breast, and watry Eye, 

And, as our captive Spirits ebb and flow, 

Smile at the Tempests you have rais'd below: 

The Face of Guilt a Flush of Vertue wears, 

And sudden burst the involuntary Tears: 

Honour's sworn Foe, the Libertine with Shame, 

Descends to curse the sordid lawless Flame; 

The tender Maid here learns Man's various Wiles, 

Rash Youth, hence dread the Wanton 's venal Smiles — 

Sure 'twas by brutal Force of envious Man, 

First Learning's base Monopoly began; 

He knew your Genius, and refus'd his Books, 

Nor thought your Wit less fatal than your Looks. 

Read, proud Usurper, read with conscious Shame, 

Pathetic BeJm, or Manley's greater Name; 

Forget their Sex, and own when Hayivood writ, 

She clos'd the fair Triumvirate of Wit; 

Born to delight as to reform the Age, 

She paints Example thro' the shining Page; 

Satiric Precept warms the moral Tale, 

And Causticks burn where the mild Balsam fails; [sic~] 

A Task reserv'd for her, to whom 'tis given, 

To stand the Proxy of vindictive Heav 'n ! " 

Amid the conventional extravagance of this panegyric ex- 
ist some useful grains of criticism. One of the most clearly 
expressed and continually reiterated aims of prose fiction, 
as of other species of writing from time immemorial, was 
that of conveying to the reader a moral through the agree- 
able channel of example. This exemplary purpose, in- 
herited by eighteenth century novelists from Cervantes and 
from the French romances, was asserted again and again in 
Mrs. Haywood's prefaces, 23 while the last paragraphs of 

23 In the Preface to Lasselia (1723), for instance, she feels obliged 
to defend herself from "that Aspersion which some of my own Sex 
have been unkind enough to throw upon me, that 'I seem to en- 
deavour to divert more than to improve the Minds of my Readers. 
3 



18 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

nearly all her tales were used to convey an admonition or 
to proclaim the value of the story as a "warning to the 
youth of both sexes." To modern readers these pieces 
seem less successful illustrations of fiction made didactic, 
than of didacticism dissolved and quite forgot in fiction, 
but Sterling and other eulogists strenuously supported the 
novelist's claim to moral usefulness. 24 The pill of im- 
provement supposed to be swallowed along with the sweets 
of diversion hardly ever consisted of good precepts and 
praiseworthy actions, but usually of a warning or a hor- 
rible example of what to avoid. 25 As a necessary corollary, 
the more striking and sensational the picture of guilt, the 

Now, as I take it, the Aim of every Person, who pretends to write 
(tho' in the most insignificant and ludicrous way) ought to tend 
at least to a good Moral Use; I shou'd be sorry to have my Inten- 
tions judg'd to be the very reverse of what they are in reality. 
How far I have been able to succeed in my Desires of infusing those 
Cautions, too necessary to a Number, I will not pretend to determine; 
but where I have had the Misfortune to fail, must impute it either 
to the Obstinacy of those I wou'd persuade, or to my own Deficiency 
in that very Thing which they are pleased to say I too much abound 
in — a true description of Nature." 

24 An eight page verse satire entitled The Female Dunces. Inscribed 
to Mr. Pope (1733) after criticizing the conduct of certain well known 
ladies, concludes with praise of a nymph who we may believe was 
intended to represent Eliza Haywood: 

"Eliza good Examples shews in vain, 
Despis'd, and laugh 'd at by the vicious Train; 
So bright she shines, she might adorn a Throne 
Not with a borrow 'd Lustre, but her Own. ' ' 

25 A single exception was The Surprise (1724), dedicated to Steele 
in the following words : ' ' The little History I presume to offer, being 
composed of Characters full of Honour and Generosity, I thought I 
had a fit Opportunity, by presenting it to one who has made it so 
much his Study to infuse those Principles, and whose every Action 
is a shining Example of them, to express my Zeal in declaring myself 
with all imaginable Regard," etc., etc. 



eliza haywood's life 19 

more efficacious it was likely to prove in the cause of virtue. 
So in the Preface to "Lasselia" (1723), published to " re- 
mind the unthinking Part of the World, how dangerous it 
is to give way to Passion, ' ' the writer hopes that her unex- 
ceptionable intent ''will excuse the too great Warmth, 
which may perhaps appear in some particular Pages; for 
without the Expression being invigorated in some measure 
proportionate to the Subject, 'twou'd be impossible for a 
Reader to be sensible how far it touches him, or how prob- 
able it is that he is falling into those Inadvertencies which 
the Examples I relate wou'd caution him to avoid." As 
a woman, too, Mrs. Haywood was excluded from "Learn- 
ing 's base Monopoly, ' ' but not from an intuitive knowledge 
of the passions, in which respect the sex were, and are, 
thought the superiors of insensible man. 26 Consequently 
her chief excellence in the opinion of her readers lay in 
that power to "command the throbbing Breast and watry 
Eye" previously recognized by the Volunteer Laureate 
and her other admirers. She could tell a story in clear and 
lively, if not always correct and elegant English, and she 
could describe the ecstasies and agonies of passion in a way 

26 See the Dedication to The Fatal Secret (1724). "But as I am 
a Woman, and consequently depriv'd of those Advantages of Edu- 
cation which the other Sex enjoy, I cannot so far flatter my Desires, 
as to imagine it in my Power to soar to any Subject higher than that 
which Nature is not negligent to teach us. 

"Love is a Topick which I believe few are ignorant of; there re- 
quires no Aids of Learning, no general Conversation, no Application ; 
a shady Grove and purling Stream are all Things that's necessary 
to give us an Idea of the tender Passion. This is a Theme, there- 
fore, which, while I make choice to write of, frees me from the Im- 
putation of vain or self -sufficient : — None can tax me with having too 
great an Opinion of my own Genius, when I aim at nothing but what 
the meanest may perform. 

"I have nothing to value myself on, but a tolerable Share of 
Discernment. ' ' 



20 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

that seemed natural and convincing to an audience nur- 
tured on French romans a long ue lialeine and heroic plays. 
Unworthy as they may seem when placed beside the subse- 
quent triumphs of the novel, her short romances neverthe- 
less kept alive the spirit of idealistic fiction and stimulated 
an interest in the emotions during an age when even poetry 
had become the handmaid of reason. 

But although Eliza had few rivals as an "arbitress of 
the passions," she did not enjoy an equal success as the 
"proxy of vindictive heaven." When she attempted to 
apply the caustic of satire instead of the mild balsam of 
moral tales, she speedily made herself enemies. From the 
very first indeed she had been persecuted by those who had 
an inveterate habit of detecting particular persons aimed 
at in the characters of her fictions, 27 and even without their 
aspersions her path was sufficiently hard. 

" It would be impossible to recount the numerous Difficulties a 
Woman has to struggle through in her Approach to Fame: If 
her Writings are considerable enough to make any Figure in the 
World, Envy pursues her with unweary'd Diligence; and if, on 
the contrary, she only writes what is forgot, as soon as read, Con- 
tempt is all the Reward, her Wish to please, excites ; and the cold 
Breath of Scorn chills the little Genius she has, and which, per- 
haps, cherished by Encouragement, might, in Time, grow to a 
Praise-worthy Height." 28 

Unfortunately the cold breath of scorn, though it may 
have stunted her genius, could not prevent it from bearing 

27 See the Preface to The Injur 'd Husband quoted in Chap. IV. 

28 Preface to The Memoirs of the Baron de Brosse (1725). A 
similar complaint had appeared in the Dedication of The Fair Captive 
(1721). "For my own part ... I suffer 'd all that Apprehension 
could inflict, and found I wanted many more Arguments than the 
little Philosophy I am Mistress of could furnish me with, to enable 
me to stem that Tide of Kaillery, which all of my Sex, unless they 
are very excellent indeed, must expect, when once they exchange 
the Needle for the Qiull." 



eliza haywood's life 21 

unseasonable fruit. Her contributions to the Duncan Camp- 
bell literature, "A Spy upon the Conjurer" (1724) and 
"The Dumb Projector" (1725), in which the romancer 
added a breath of intrigue to the atmosphere of mystery- 
surrounding the wizard, opened the way for more notorious 
appeals to the popular taste for personal scandal. In the 
once well known "Memoirs of a Certain Island adjacent 
to the Kingdom of Utopia" (1725-6) and the no less in-" 
famous "Secret History of the Present Intrigues of the 
Court of Carimania" (1727) Mrs. Haywood found a fit 
repertory for daringly licentious gossip of the sort made 
fashionable reading by Mrs. Manley's "Atalantis." But 
though the romans a clef of Mrs. Haywood, like the juve- 
nile compositions of Mr. Stepney, might well have "made 
grey authors blush," her chief claim to celebrity undoubt- 
edly depends upon her inclusion in the immortal ranks of 
Grubstreet. Her scandal novels did not fail to arouse the 
wrath of persons in high station, and Alexander Pope made 
of the writer's known, though never acknowledged connec- 
tion with pieces of the sort a pretext for showing his 
righteous zeal in the cause of public morality and his re- 
sentment of a fancied personal insult. The torrent of 
filthy abuse poured upon Eliza in "The Dunciad" seems to 
have seriously damaged her literary reputation. During 
the next decade she wrote almost nothing, and after her 
curious allegorical political satire in the form of a romance, 
the "Adventures of Eovaai" (1736), the authoress dropped 
entirely out of sight. For six years no new work came 
from her pen. What she was doing during this time re- 
mains a puzzle. She could hardly have been supported by 
the rewards of her previous labors, for the gains of the 
most successful novelists at this period were small. If she 
became a journalist or turned her energies toward other 
means of making a livelihood, no evidence of the fact has. 



22 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

yet been discovered. It is possible that (to use the current 
euphemism) the necessity of her affairs may have obliged 
her to leave London and even England until creditors be- 
came less insistent. There can be little doubt that Mrs. 
Haywood visited the Continent at least once, but the time 
of her going is uncertain. 29 

When she renewed her literary activity in 1742 with a 
translation of "La Paysanne Parvenue" by the Chevalier 
de Mouhy, Mrs. Haywood did not depend entirely upon 
her pen for support. A notice at the end of the first 
volume of "The Virtuous Villager, or Virgin's Victory," 
as her work was called, advertised "new books sold by 
Eliza Haywood, Publisher, at the Sign of Fame in Covent 
Garden." Her list of publications was not extensive, con- 
taining, in fact, only two items: I. "The Busy-Body; or 
Successful Spy; being the entertaining History of Mons. 
Bigancl . . . The whole containing great Variety of Ad- 
ventures, equally instructive and diverting, ' ' and II. ' ' Anti- 
Pamela, or Feign 'd Innocence detected, in a Series of 
Syrena's Adventures: A Narrative which has really its 
Foundation in Truth and Nature . . . Publish 'd as a nec- 
essary Caution to all young Gentlemen. The Second Edi- 
tion. ' ' 30 Mrs. Haywood 's venture as a publisher was trans- 

2 9 See a poem by Aaron Hill, To Eliza upon her design 'd Voyage 
into Spain (undated), Hill's Works, III, 363. Also The Husband, 
59. "On a trip I was once taking to France, an accident happen 'd 
to detain me for some days at Dover," etc. Mrs. Haywood's rela- 
tions with Hill have been excellently discussed by Miss Dorothy 
Brewster, Aaron Hill (1913), 186. 

30 The first of these was a translation of the Chevalier de Mouhy 's 
best known work, La Mouche, ou les Aventures et espiegleries 
facetieuses de Bigand, (1736), and may have been done by Mrs. 
Haywood herself. The second title certainly savors of a typical 
Haywoodian production, but I have been unable to find a copy of 
these alleged publications. Neither of them was originally pub- 
lished at the Sign of Fame, and they could hardly have been pirated, 



eliza haywood's life 23 

itory, for we hear no more of it. But taken together with 
a letter from her to Sir Hans Sloane, 31 recommending cer- 
tain volumes of poems that no gentleman's library ought 
to be without, the bookselling enterprise shows that the 
novelist had more strings than one to her bow. 

By one expedient or another Mrs. Haywood managed to 
exist fourteen years longer and during that time wrote the 
best remembered of her works. Copy from her pen sup- 
plied her publisher, Thomas Gardner, with a succession of 
novels modeled on the French fiction of Marivaux and De 
Mouhy, with periodical essays reminiscent of Addison, with 
moral letters, and with conduct books of a nondescript but 
popular sort. The hard-worked authoress even achieved 
a new reputation on the success of her "Fortunate Found- 
lings" (1744), "Female Spectator" (1744-6), and her 
most ambitious novel, "The History of Miss Betsy Thought- 
less" (1751). The productions known to be hers do not 
certainly represent the entire output of her industry dur- 
ing this period, for since "The Dunciad" her writing had 
been almost invariably anonymous. One or two equivocal 
bits of secret history and scandal-mongering may probably 
be attributed to her at the very time when in ' ' Epistles for 
the Ladies" (1749-50) she was advocating sobriety, re- 
ligion, and morality. These suspected lapses into her old 
habits should serve as seasoning to the statement of the 

since Cogan, who issued the volume wherein the advertisement ap- 
peared, was also the original publisher of The Busy-Body. The 
Anti-Pamela had already been advertised for Huggonson in June, 
1741, and had played a small part in the series of pamphlets, novels, 
plays, and poems excited by Kichardson's fashionable history. If 
Mrs. Haywood wrote it, she was biting the hand that fed her, for 
The Virtuous Villager probably owed its second translation and 
what little sale it may have enjoyed to the similarity between the 
victorious virgin and the popular Pamela. 

3i B. M. (MSS. Sloane. 4059. ff. 144), undated. 



24 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

"Biographia Dramatica" that Eliza Haywood was "in 
mature age, remarkable for the most rigid and scrupulous 
decorum, delicacy, and prudence, both with respect to her 
conduct and conversation. ' ' If she was not too old a dog to 
learn new tricks, she at least did not forget her old ones. 

Of her circumstances during her last years little can be 
discovered. "The Female Spectator," in emulation of its 
famous model, commences with a pen-portrait of the writer, 
which though not intended as an accurate picture, certainly 
contains no flattering lines. It shows the essayist both con- 
scious of the faults of her youth and willing to make capital 
out of them. 

" As a Proof of my Sincerity, I shall, in the first place, assure 
him [the reader], that for my own Part I never was a Beauty, and 
am now very far from being young; (a Confession he will find 
few of my Sex ready to make) : I shall also acknowledge that I 
have run through as many Scenes of Vanity and Folly as the 
greatest Coquet of them all. — Dress, Equipage, and Flattery were 
the Idols of my Heart. — I should have thought that Day lost, 
which did not present me with some new Opportunity of shewing 
myself. — My Life, for some Years, was a continued Round of what 
I then called Pleasure, and my whole Time engross'd by a Hurry 
of promiscuous Diversions. — But whatever Inconveniences such a 
manner of Conduct has brought upon myself, I have this Conso- 
lation, to think that the Publick may reap some Benefit from it : — 
The Company I kept was not, indeed, always so well chosen as it 
ought to have been, for the sake of my own Interest or Reputa- 
tion; but then it was general, and by Consequence furnished me, 
not only with the Knowledge of many Occurrences, which other- 
wise I had been ignorant of, but also enabled me ... to see into 
the most secret Springs which gave rise to the Actions I had 
either heard, or been Witness of — to judge of the various Passions 
of the Human Mind, and distinguish those imperceptible De- 
grees by which they become Masters of the Heart, and attain the 
Dominion over Reason. . . . 

"With this Experience, added to a Genius tolerably extensive, 



eliza haywood's life 25 

and an Education more liberal than is ordinarily allowed to Per- 
sons of my Sex, I flatter' d myself that it might be in my Power 
to be in some measure both useful and entertaining to the Publick." 

A less favorable glimpse of the authoress and her activities 
is afforded by a notice of a questionable publication called 

"A Letter from H G g, Esq." (1750), and 

dealing with the movements of the Young Chevalier. It 
was promptly laid to her door by the ' ' Monthly Review. ' ' 32 

" The noted Mrs. H d, author of four volumes of novels well 

known, and other romantic performances, is the reputed author 
of this pretended letter; which was privately conveyed to the 
shops, no publisher caring to appear in it: but the government, 
less scrupulous, took care to make the piece taken notice of, by 
arresting the female veteran we have named; who has been some 
weeks in custody of a messenger, who also took up several pam- 
phlet-sellers, and about 800 copies of the book; which last will 
now probably be rescued from a fate they might otherwise have 
undergone, that of being turned into waste-paper, ... by the 
famous fiery nostrum formerly practised by the physicians of 
the soul in Smith-field, and elsewhere; and now as successfully 
used in treasonable, as then in heretical cases." 

This unceremonious handling of the "female veteran," in 
marked contrast to the courteous, though not always favor- 
able treatment of Mrs. Haywood's legitimate novels, sug- 
gests the possibility that even the reviewers were ignorant 
of the authorship of "The History of Jemmy and Jenny 
Jessamy" (1753) and "The Invisible Spy" (1755). 
Twenty years later, in fact, a writer in the "Critical Re- 
view" used the masculine pronoun to refer to the author 
of "Betsy Thoughtless." It is quite certain that Mrs. 
Haywood spent the closing years of her life in great ob- 
scurity, for no notice of her death appeared in any one of 
the usual magazines. She continued to publish until the 
32 Monthly Review, II, 167, Jan. 1750. 



26 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

end, and with two novels ready for the press, died on 25 
February, 1756. 33 

"In literature," writes M. Paul Morillot, "even if quality 
is wanting, quantity has some significance, ' ' and though we 
may share Scott's abhorrence for the whole "Jemmy and 
Jenny Jessamy tribe" of novels, we cannot deny the 
authoress the distinction accorded her by the "Biographia 
Dramatica" of being — for her time, at least — "the most 
voluminous female writer this kingdom ever produced." 
Moreover, it is not Richardson, the meticulous inventor of 
the epistolary novel, but the past-mistress of sensational 
romance who is credited with originating the English do- 
mestic novel. Compared with the delicate perceptions and 
gentle humor of Fanny Burney and Jane Austen, Mrs. 
Haywood's best volumes are doubtless dreary enough, but 
even if they only crudely foreshadow the work of incom- 
parably greater genius, they represent an advance by no 
means slight. From ' ' Love in Excess " to " Betsy Thought- 
less" was a step far more difficult than from the latter 
novel to "Evelina." As pioneers, then, the author of 
"Betsy Thoughtless" and her obscurer contemporaries did 
much to prepare the way for the notable women novelists 
who succeeded them. No modern reader is likely to turn to 
the ' ' Ouida " of a bygone day — as Mr. Grosse calls her — for 
amusement or for admonition, but the student of the period 
may find that Eliza Haywood's seventy or more books 
throw an interesting' sidelight upon public taste and the 
state of prose fiction at a time when the half created novel 
was still "pawing to get free his -hinder parts." 

33 The Biographia Dramatica gives this date. Clara Reeve, 
Progress of Romance, I, 121, however, gives 1758, while Mrs. Grif- 
fith, Collection of Novels (1777), II, 159, prefers 1759. The two 
novels were Clementina (1768), a revision of The Agreeable Cale- 
donian, and The History of Leonora Meadowson (1788). 



CHAPTER II 

SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 

The little amatory tales which formed Mrs. Haywood's 
chief stock in trade when she first set up for a writer of fic- 
tion, inherited many of the characteristics of the long- 
winded French romances. Though some were told with 
as much directness as any of the intercalated narratives in 
"Clelie" or "Cleopatre," others permitted the inclusion 
of numerous "little histories" only loosely connected with 
the main plot. Letters burning with love or jealousy were 
inserted upon the slightest provocation, and indeed re- 
mained an important component of Eliza Haywood's writ- 
ing, whether the ostensible form was romance, essay, or 
novel. Scraps of poetry, too, were sometimes used to orna- 
ment her earliest effusions, but the other miscellaneous fea- 
tures of the romances — lists of maxims, oratory, moral dis- 
courses, and conversations — were discarded -from the first. 
The language of these short romances, while generally more 
easy and often more colloquial than the absurd extrava- 
gances of the translators of heroic romances and their imi- 
tators, still smacked too frequently of shady groves and 
purling streams to be natural. Many conventional themes 
of love or jealousy, together with such stock types as the 
amorous Oriental potentate, the lover disguised as a slave, 
the female page, the heroine of excessive delicacy, the lan- 
guishing beauty, the ravishing sea-captain, and the conve- 
nient pirate persisted in the pages of Mrs. Barker, Mrs. 
Haywood, and Mrs. Aubin. As in the interminable tomes 
of Scudery, love and honor supplied the place of life and 
manners in the tales of her female successors, and though 
27 x 



28 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

in some respects their stories were nearer the standard of 
real conduct, new novel on the whole was but old romance 
writ small. 

In attempting to revitalize the materials and methods of 
the romances Mrs. Haywood was but following the lead of 
the French romancieres, who had successfully invaded the 
field of prose fiction when the passing of the precieuse 
fashion and Boileau's influential ridicule 1 had discredited 
the romance in the eyes of writers with classical predilec- 
tions. Mme de La Fayette far outshines her rivals, but a 
host of obscure women, headed by Hortense Desjardins, 
better known as Mme de Villedieu, hastened to supply the 
popular demand for romantic stories. In drawing their 
subjects from the histories of more modern courts than 
those of Rome, Greece, or Egypt they endeavored to make 
their "historical" romances of passion more lifelike than 
the heroic romances, and while they avoided the extrava- 
gances, they also shunned the voluminousness of the romans 
a longue haleine. So the stories related in "La Belle As- 
semblee" by Mme de Gomez, translated by Mrs. Haywood 
in 1725 and often reprinted, are nearer the model of Boc- 
caccio's novelle than of the Scudery romance, both in their 
directness and in being set in a framework, but the inclu- 
sion, in the framework, of long conversations on love, morals, 
politics, or wit, with copious examples from ancient and 
modern history, of elegant verses on despair and similar 
topics, and of such miscellaneous matter as the "General 
Instructions of a Mother to a Daughter for her Conduct in 
Life," showed that the influence of the salon was not yet 
exhausted. In the continuation called "L'Entretien des 
Beaux Esprits" (translated in 1734), however, the elaborate 

i Les H&ros de Roman, 1664, circulated in MS. and printed in 1688 
without the consent of the author. Not included in Boileau's Works 
until 1713. 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 29 

framework was so far reduced that fourteen short tales 
were crowded into two volumes as compared with eighteen 
in the four volumes of the previous work. Writers of 
fiction were evidently finding brief, unadorned narrative 
most acceptable to the popular taste. 

That the "novels" inserted in these productions had not 
ceased to breathe the atmosphere of romance is sufficiently 
indicated by such titles as "Nature outdone by Love," 
"The Triumph of Virtue," "The Generous Corsair," 
"Love Victorious over Death," and "Heroick Love." 
French models of this kind supplied Mrs. Haywood with 
a mine of romantic plots and situations which she was not 
slow to utilize. 2 Furthermore, her natural interest in emo- 
tional fiction was quickened by these and other translations 
from the French. The ' ' Letters from a Lady of Quality to 
a Chevalier" emphasized the teaching of the "Lettres Por- 
tugaises," while "The Lady's Philosopher's Stone; or, The 
Caprices of Love and Destiny" (1725), 3 although claiming 
to be an "historical novel" in virtue of being set "in the 
time, when Cromwell's Faction prevail'd in England," was 
almost entirely occupied with the matters indicated in the 
sub-title. And in "The Disguis'd Prince: or, the Beauti- 
ful Parisian" (1728) she translated the melting history of 
a prince who weds a merchant's daughter in spite of com- 
plicated difficulties. 4 Much reading in books of this sort 

2 The story of Tellisinda, who to avoid the reproach of barrenness 
imposes an adopted child upon her husband, but later bearing a son, 
is obliged to see a spurious heir inherit her own child's estate, was 
borrowed with slight changes from La Belle Assemblee, 1, Day 5, and 
used in Mrs. Haywood's Fruitless Enquiry, (1727). 

z La Pierre philosophale des dames, ou les Caprices de l 1 amour et 
du destin, by Louis Adrien Duperron de Castera, (1723), 12mo. 

iL'Illustre Parisienne, (1679), variously attributed to Prechac 
and to Mme de Villedieu, had already been translated as The Illus- 
trious Parisian Maid, or The Secret Amours of a German Prince, 



30 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

filled Mrs. Haywood's mind with images of exalted virtue 
and tremendous vice, and like a Female Quixote, she saw 
and reported the life about her in terms borrowed from the 
romances. So, too, Mrs. Manley had written her auto- 
biography in the character of Rivella. 

This romantic turn of mind was not easily laid aside, but 
the women writers made some progress toward a more 
direct and natural representation of the passions. The 
advance was due partly, no doubt, to a perception of the 
heroic absurdities of French fiction, but also to the study 
of Italian novelle and the "Exemplary Novels" of Cer- 
vantes. But even when imitating the compression of these 
short tales Mrs. Haywood did not always succeed in freeing 
herself from the "amour trop delicat" of the romantic con- 
ventions. In two short "novels" appended to "Cleomelia: 
or, the Generous Mistress" (1727) the robust animalism of 
the Italian tales comes in sharp contrast with the delicat esse 
of the French tradition. ' ' The Lucky Rape : or, Fate the 
best Disposer" illustrates the spirit of the novelle. 

Emilia, rusticated to Andalusia to escape falling in love, gives 
her heart to Berinthus, whom she meets at a masquerade. On 
her way to a second entertainment to meet her lover, her terror of 
a drunken cavalier induces her to accept the protection of the 
amorous Alonzo and paves the way for her ruin. Berinthus turns 
out to be her brother Henriquez. Alonzo, his friend, marries the 
lady as soon as her identity is discovered, and all parties are per- 
fectly content, 

Though the scene of ' ' The Capricious Lover : or, No Trifling 
with a Woman" is likewise laid in Spain, the atmosphere 
of the story is far different. 

(1680). A synopsis is given by H. E. Chatenet, Le Roman et les 
Romans d'une femme de lettres . . . Mme de Villedieu, (Paris, 
1911), 253-9. 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 31 

Montano, doubtful of Calista's affection for him, feigns to break 
with her, and she, though really loving him, returns an indifferent 
answer and marries Gaspero out of pique. The distracted lover 
thereupon falls upon his sword in the presence of the newly 
wedded couple, and the bride, touched by the spectacle of her 
lover's devotion, languishes and dies in a few months. 

There is little naturalness in the extravagant passion of the 
second story, but until sensationalism cloyed the public 
palate, realism was an unnecessary labor. By placing the 
events in some romantic country like Spain, Portugal, 
Italy, or even France, any narrative of excessive love could 
be made to pass current. The Latin countries were vaguely 
imagined by romantic novelists as a sort of remote but 
actual pays du Tendre where the most extraordinary actions 
might occur if only "love, soft love" were the motivating 
force. 

A collection of select novels called "Love in its Variety," 
advertised in 1727 as "Written in Spanish by Signior 
Michel Ban Dello; made English by Mrs. Eliza Haywood," 
was apparently a translation from the novelle of Matteo 
Bandello, probably from a French version. 5 The best ex- 
amples of her brief, direct tales, however, are to be found 
in "The Fruitless Enquiry. Being a Collection of several 
Entertaining Histories and Occurrences, which Fell under 
the Observation of a Lady in her Search after Happiness" 
(1727). Although the scene is laid in Venice, the model of 
this framework story was probably not the "Decameron" 
but the Oriental tales, known in England through French 
translations and imitations of the "Arabian Nights." In- 
tercalated stories were not uncommon in French romances, 
but they were almost invariably introduced as life histories 
of the various characters. A fantastic framework, with a 
hint of magic, fabricated expressly to give unity to a series 

5 I have not seen a copy of the book. 



32 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

of tales, half exemplary, half satirical, points directly to 
an ultimate connection with the narratives of Scheherezade 
and Sutlememe. No attempt to catch the spirit of the East 
is discernible, but the vogue of Oriental tales was evidently 
beginning to make an impression on French and English 
writers of fiction. Care for the moral welfare of her 
readers doubtless influenced Mrs. Haywood to assert in the 
dedication to Lady Elizabeth Germain that the following 
"Sheets . . . contain the History of some real Facts," and 
that the author's chief design in publishing was to "per- 
suade my Sex from seeking Happiness the wrong Way." 
At any rate the moral of the stories suited the taste of the 



Miramillia, widow of a nobleman in Venice, loses her only son, 
and is informed by a soothsayer that she will hear nothing of him 
until she has a shirt made for him by a woman perfectly content. 
She, therefore, seeks among her acquaintance for the happy 
woman, but one after another reveals to her a secret disquiet. 

Anziana, married against her will to the Count Caprera, en- 
courages her former lover, Lorenzo, to continue his friendship for 
her. Her husband and father, believing that she is about to prove 
faithless to her marriage vows, secretly assassinate Lorenzo, and 
cause his skeleton to be set up in Anziana's closet for an object 
lesson. When she discovers it, she refuses to be reconciled to her 
husband, and vows to spend an hour a day weeping over Lorenzo's 
remains. 

On the night of his marriage Montrano is torn from the arms 

6 Mrs. E. Griffith's comment on the work is typical of the tendency 
to moralize even the amusements of the day. See A Collection of 
Novels, (1777), II, 162. "The idea on which this piece is founded, 
has a good deal of merit in it; as tending to abate envy, and con- 
ciliate content; by shewing, in a variety of instances, that appear- 
ances are frequently fallacious; that perfect or permanent happi- 
ness is not the lot of mortal life; and that peace of mind and 
rational enjoyment are only to be found in bosoms free from guilt, 
and from intimate connection with the guilty." 



SHORT ROMANCES OP PASSION 33 

of Iseria by his cruel uncle and shipped to Ceylon. Shipwrecked, 
he becomes the slave of a savage Incas, whose renegade Italian 
queen falls in love with him. But neither her blandishments nor 
the terrible effects of her displeasure can make him inconstant to 
Iseria. After suffering incredible hardships, he returns to see 
Iseria once more before entering a monastery, but she, loyal even 
to the semblance of the man, refuses to allow him to leave her. 

Stenoclea's doting parents refuse to let her wed Armuthi, a 
gentleman beneath her in fortune, and he in hopes of removing 
the objection goes on his travels. Her parents die, her brother 
is assassinated on his way home to Venice, she becomes mistress 
of her fortune, and soon marries her lover. Completely happy, 
she begins to make a shirt for Miramillia's son, but before it is 
completed, a servant who had been wounded when her brother was 
killed, returns and identifies Armuthi as the slayer. Through 
Miramillia's influence the husband is pardoned, but Stenoclea re- 
tires to a convent. 

An adventuress named Maria boasts to Miramillia that she has 
attained perfect felicity by entrapping the Marquis de Savilado 
into a marriage. She too undertakes the shirt, but in a few days 
Miramillia hears that the supposed Marquis has been exposed as 
an impostor and turned into the street with his wife. 

Violathia endures for a long time the cruelties of her jealous 
husband, Count Berosi, but finally yields to the persistent kindness 
of her lover, Charmillo. Just as he has succeeded in alienating 
his wife's affections, Berosi experiences a change of heart. His 
conduct makes the divorce impossible, and she is forced to remain 
the wife of a man she loathes, and to dismiss Charmillo who has 
really gamed her love. 

Tellisinda, to avoid the reproach of barrenness, imposes an 
adopted boy on her husband, but shortly afterward gives birth to 
a child. She is forced to watch a spurious but amiable heir in- 
herit the estate of her own ill-natured son. (Cf. p. 29, note 2.) 

Even unmarried ladies, Miramillia finds, are not without their 
discontents. Amalia is vexed over ; the failure of a ball gown. 
Clorilla is outranked by an acquaintance whose father has obtained 
4 



34 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

preferment. Claribella pouts because a man has shot himself for 
love of her rival. Selinda mourns her lap-dog dead. 

Just as Miramillia is ready to give over her search for a happy 
woman, Adario, her son, returns in company with a former lover 
of hers whose daughter he has saved from a villain at the expense 
of a wound from which he has but then recovered. Naturally 
the girl rewards him Avith her hand, and all ends well. 7 

Of the stories in this diversified collection that of Anziana 
approaches in kind, though not in degree, the tragic pathos 
of Isabella and the Pot of Basil ("Decameron," IV, 5). 
The second narrative has all the glamor of adventure in the 
barbaric East, and the romantic interest that attaches to 
lovers separated but eternally constant. The histories of 
Stenoclea and of Tellisinda contain situations of dramatic 
intensity. But perhaps the story of Violathia is the most 
worthy of attention on account both of its defects and of its 
merits. The weakest part of the plot is the husband, who 
is jealous without cause, and equally without reason sud- 
denly reforms. But the character of Violathia is admirably 
drawn. Unlike the usual heroine of Haywoodian fiction 
she is superior to circumstance and does not yield her love 
to the most complacent adjacent male. As a dutiful wife 
she resists for a long time the insinuations of Charmillo, but 
when she decides to fly to her lover, her husband's tardy 
change of heart cannot alter her feelings. Her character 
is individual, firm, and palpable. If the story was original 
with Mrs. Haywood, it shows that her powers of character- 
ization were not slight when she wished to exert them. The 
influence of the novella and of the Oriental tale produced 
nothing better. 

From other literary forms the makers of fiction freely 
derived sensational materials and technical hints. Without 
insisting too closely upon the connection between novel and 

i I have omitted two or three unessential stories in the analysis. 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 35 

play, we may well remember that nearly all the early novel- 
ists, Defoe excepted, were intimately associated with the 
theatre. Mrs. Behn, Mrs. Manley, Mrs. Haywood, and later 
Fielding and Mrs. Lennox were successful in both fields. 
The women writers especially were familiar with dramatic 
technique both as actors and playwrights, and turned their 
stage training to account when they wrote prose fiction. 
Mrs. Haywood's first novel, "Love in Excess" (1720), 
showed evidences of her apprenticeship to the theatre. Its 
three parts may be compared to the three acts of a play; 
the principal climax falls properly at the end of the second 
part, and the whole ends in stereotyped theatrical fashion 
with the marriage of all the surviving couples. The hand- 
ling of incident, too, is in the fashion of the stage. Mrs. 
Haywood had sufficient skill to build up a dramatic situa- 
tion, but she invariably solves it, or rather fails to solve it, 
by an interruption at the critical moment, so that the read- 
er's interest is continually titillated. Of a situation having 
in itself the germs of a solution, she apparently had not the 
remotest conception. When a love scene has been carried 
far enough, the coming of a servant, the sound of a duel 
near by, or a seasonable outbreak of fire interrupts it. Such 
devices were the common stock in trade of minor writers 
for the theatre. Dramatic hacks who turned to prose fic- 
tion found it only a more commodious vehicle for incidents 
and scenes already familiar to them on the stage. In their 
hands the novel became simply a looser and more extended 
series of sensational adventures. Accident, though tem- 
pered in various degrees by jealousy, hatred, envy, or love, 
was the supreme motivating force. 

The characters of Mrs. Haywood's "Love in Excess" 
also inherited many traits from the debased but glittering 
Sir Fopling Flutters, Mirabells, Millamants, and Lady 
Wishforts of the Restoration stage. Of character drawing, 



36 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

indeed, there is practically none in the entire piece ; the 
personages are distinguished only by the degree of their 
willingness to yield to the tender passion. The story in 
all its intricacies may best be described as the vie amoureuse 
of Count D'Elmont, a hero with none of the wit, but with 
all the gallantry of the rakes of late Restoration comedy. 
Two parts of the novel relate the aristocratic intrigues of 
D'Elmont and his friends; the third shows him, like Mrs. 
Centlivre's gallants in the fifth act, reformed and a model 
of constancy. It would be useless to detail the sensational 
extravagances of the plot in all its ramifications, but the 
hero's adventures before and after marriage may serve as 
a fair sample of the whole. 

D'Elmont, returning to Paris from the French wars, becomes 
the admiration of both sexes, but especially in the eyes of the rich 
and noble Alovisa appears a conquest worthy of her powers. To 
an incoherent expression of her passion sent to him in an anon- 
ymous letter he pays no attention, having for diversion com- 
menced an intrigue with the lovely Amena. Though Alovisa in 
a second billet bids him aim at a higher mark, "he had said too 
many fine things to be lost," and continues his pursuit until 
Amena's father takes alarm and locks her up. Through her maid 
she arranges for a secret meeting, and though touched by her 
father's reproofs, she is unable to withstand the pleas of the cap- 
tivating count. Their tete-a-tete in the Tuilleries, however, is in- 
terrupted by Alovisa's spies, who alarm the house with cries of 
fire, so that the lovers find themselves locked out. Half senseless 
with dismay, Amena finds shelter in the house of Alovisa, who, 
though inwardly triumphant, receives her rival civilly and prom- 
ises to reconcile her to her father. D'Elmont is so patently glad 
to be relieved of his fair charge that she demands back her letter, 
but he by mistake gives her one of Alovisa's, whose handwriting 
she immediately recognizes. When the polite Count returns to 
enquire after her health, she accuses her lover and friend of du- 
plicity, faints, and letting fall Alovisa's letter from her bosom, 
brings about an eclaircissement between D'Elmont and that lady. 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 37 

Before Amena's recovery the Count hastens away to welcome his 
brother, and when the imprudent girl has been safely lodged in a 
convent, D'Elmont, moved more by ambition than by love, weds 
the languishing Alovisa. 

After his marriage the Count soon quarrels with his wife and 
consoles himself by falling in love with his ward, the matchless 
Melliora, but the progress of his amour is interrupted by numer- 
ous unforeseen accidents. The mere suspicion of his inconstancy 
raises his wife's jealousy to a fever heat. To expose her rival 
she pretends to yield to the persuasions of her wooer, the Baron 
D'Espernay, but as a result of a very intricate intrigue both 
AJovisa and the Baron perish accidentally on the swords of 
D'Elmont and his brother. 

Melliora retires to a convent, and her lover goes to travel in 
Italy, where his charms cause one lady to take poison for love 
of him, and another to follow him disguised as the little foot-page 
Fidelio. In helping Melliora's brother to elope with a beautiful 
Italian girl, the Count again encounters his beloved Melliora, now 
pursued by the Marquis de Sanguillier. In a dramatic denoue- 
ment she deserts the Marquis at the altar and throws herself upon 
the protection of her guardian. The disappointed bridegroom is 
consoled by the discovery of an old flame who has long been serv- 
ing him secretly in the capacity of chambermaid. Fidelio reveals 
her identity and dies of hopeless love, pitied by all. The three 
surviving couples marry at once, and this time the husbands " con- 
tinue, with their fair Wives, great and lovely Examples of con- 
jugal Affection." 

Such, with the omission of all secondary narratives, is the 
main plot of Eliza Haywood's first novel. 

"Love in Excess" best illustrates the similarity of sen- 
sational fiction to clap-trap drama, but others of her early 
works bear traces of the author's familiarity with the 
theatre. The escape of the pair of lovers from an Oriental 
court, already the theme of countless plays including Mrs. 
Haywood's own "Fair Captive," was re-vamped to supply 
an episode in "Idalia" (1723), and parts of the same novel 



38 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

are written in concealed blank verse that echoes the heroic 
Orientalism of some of Dryden's tragedies. In the charac- 
ter of Grubguard, the amorous alderman of "The City 
Jilt" (1726), Mrs. Haywood apparently had in mind not 
Alderman Barber, whom the character little resembles, but 
rather Antonio in Otway's "Venice Preserved." And the 
plot of "The Distressed Orphan, or Love in a Mad-House" 
(c. 1726), where young Colonel Marathon feigns himself 
mad in order to get access to his beloved Annilia, may per- 
haps owe its inspiration to the coarser mad-house scenes of 
Middleton's "Changeling." 8 On the whole, however, the 
drama but poorly repaid its debt to prose fiction. 

An indication of the multifarious origins of the short 
tales of love is to be found in the nominal diversity of the 
setting. The scene, though often laid in some such passion- 
ridden land as Spain or Italy, rarely affects the nature of 
the story. But as in such novels as "Philidore and Pla- 
centia" and "The Agreeable Caledonian" the characters 
wander widely over the face of Europe and even come in 
contact with strange Eastern climes, so the writers of 
romantic tales ransacked the remotest corners of literature 
and history for sensational matter. The much elaborated 
chronicle of the Moors was made to eke out substance for 
"The Arragonian Queen" (1724), a story of "Europe in 
the Eighth Century," while " Cleomelia : or, the Generous 
Mistress" was advertised as the "Secret History of a Lady 
Lately Arriv'd from Bengali." The tendency to exploit 
the romantic features of outlandish localities was carried 
to the ultimate degree by Mrs. Penelope Aubin, whose 
characters range over Africa, Turkey, Persia, the East and 

s Act I, sc. ii. In the novel the heroine is shut up by a miserly 
hunks of an uncle to force her into a detested mercenary match 
with his son. In the play the mistress is the wife of the old and 
jealous keeper of the asylum. 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 39 

West Indies, and the North American continent, often with 
peculiar geographical results. But neither Mrs. Aubin nor 
Mrs. Haywood was able to use the gorgeous local color that 
distinguished Mrs. Behn's "Oroonoko," and still less did 
they command the realistic imagination that could make the 
travels of a Captain Singleton lifelike. 

Even when, as in "The Mercenary Lover," the setting 
is transferred to "the Metropolis of one of the finest Islands 
in the World," and the action takes place "in the neigh- 
borhood of a celebrated Church, in the Sound of whose 
Bells the Inhabitants of that populous City think it an 
Honour to be born," 9 the change is unaccompanied by any 
attempt at circumstantial realism. We are told that Be- 
linda of "The British Recluse" is a young lady of War- 
wickshire, that Fantomina follows her lover to Bath in the 
guise of a chambermaid, or that "The Fair Hebrew" re- 
lates the "true, but secret history of two Jewish ladies who 
lately resided in London," but without the labels the set- 
tings could not be distinguished from the vague and uniden- 
tified mise en scene of such a romance as "The Unequal 
Conflict." Placentia in England raves of her passion for 
Philidore exactly as Alovisa in Paris, Emanuella in Ma- 
drid, 10 or Cleomelia in Bengal expose the raptures and 
agonies of their passions. The hero of "The Double Mar- 
riage" (1726) rescues a distressed damsel in the woods 
outside of Plymouth exactly as one of Ariosto's or Spenser's 
knights-errant might have done in the fairy country of old 
romance. In the sordid tale of ' ' Irish Artifice, ' ' printed in 
Curll's "Female Dunciad" (1728), no reader could dis- 
tinguish in the romantic names Aglaura and Merovius 
the nationality or the meanness of a villainous Irish house- 
keeper and her son. And though the tale is the very re- 

9 Preface to The Mercenary Lover, (1726). 
™The Rash Resolve, (1724). 



40 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

verse of romantic, it contains no hint of actual circumstance. 
The characters in Mrs. Haywood's early fiction move in an 
imaginary world, sometimes, it is true, marked with the 
names of real places, but no more truly realistic than the 
setting of "Arcadia" or " Parthenissa. " 

Nor are the figures that people the eighteenth century 
paradise of romance more definitely pictured than the land- 
scape. They are generally unindividualized, lay figures 
swayed by the passions of the moment, or at best mere 
"humour" characters representing love's epitome, extrav- 
agant jealousy, or eternal constancy. Pope could make a 
portrait specific by the vigorous use of epigrams, but Mrs. 
Haywood's comments on her heroes and heroines are but 
feeble. The description of Lasselia, for instance, contains 
no trait that is particular, no characteristic definitely indi- 
vidual. The girl is simply the type of all that is conven- 
tionally charming in her sex, "splendidly null, dead per- 
fection. ' ' 

" But if the grave Part of the World were eharm'd with her 
Wit and Discretion, the Young and Gay were infinitely more so 
with her Beauty ; which tho' it was not of that dazzling kind which 
strikes the Eye at first looking on it with Desire and Wonder, yet 
it was such as seldom fail'd of captivating Hearts most averse to 
Love. Her features were perfectly regular, her Eyes had an un- 
common Vivacity in them, mix'd with a Sweetness, which spoke 
the Temper of her Soul; her Mien was gracefully easy, and her 
Shape the most exquisite that could be; in fine, her Charms en- 
creas'd by being often seen, every View diseover'd something new 
to be admir'd; and tho' they were of that sort which more prop- 
erly may be said to persuade than to command Adoration, yet 
they persuaded it in such a manner, that no Mortal was able to 
resist their Force." (p. 2.) 

Mrs. Haywood's heroes are merely the masculine counter- 
parts of her women. Bellcour, the type of many more, "had 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 41 

as much Learning as was necessary to a Gentleman who 
depended not on that alone to raise his Fortune: He had 
also admirable Skill in Fencing, and became a Horse as 
well as any Man in the World." 11 Victor over a thousand 
hearts, the Haywoodian male ranges through his glittering 
sphere, ever ready to fall in or out of love as the occasion 
demands. D'Elmont of "Love in Excess" possesses a soul 
large enough to contain both love and fury at almost the 
same moment. A "brulee" with his spouse merely in- 
creases his tenderness for his ward. 

"You have done well, Madam, (said D'Elmont, looking on her 
with Eyes sparkling with Indignation) you have done well, by 
your impertinent Curiosity and Imprudence, to rouze me from 
my Dream of Happiness, and remind me that I am that wretched 
thing a Husband! 'Tis well indeed, answer' d Alovisa, (who saw 
now that there was no need of farther Dissimulation) that any 
thing can make you remember, both what you are, and what I am. 
You, resum'd he, hastily interrupting her, have taken an effectual 
Method to prove your self a Wife ! — a very Wife ! — Insolent — 
Jealous — and Censorious! — But Madam, continued he frowning, 
since you are pleased to assert your Privilege, be assur'd, I too 
shall take my turn, and will exert the — Husband ! In saying this, 
he flung out of the Boom in spite of her Endeavours to hinder 
him, and going hastily through a Gallery which had a large Window 
that look'd into the Garden, he perceiv'd Melliora lying on a green 
Bank, in a melancholy but a charming Posture, directly opposite 
to the place where he was; her Beauties appear'd, if possible 
more to advantage than ever he had seen them, or at least he had 
more opportunity thus unseen by her, to gaze upon them : he in a 
moment lost all the Rage of Temper he had been in, and his whole 
Soul was taken up with Softness. . . . Ambition, Envy, Hate, 
Fear, or Anger, every other Passion that finds entrance in the Soul, 
Art and Discretion may disguise ; but Love, tho' it may be f eign'd, 
can never be conceal'd, not only the Eyes (those true and most 
perfect Intelligencers of the Heart) but every Feature, every 

11 The Double Marriage, (1726). 



42 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Faculty betrays it ! It fills the whole Air of the Person possess'd 
of it ; it wanders round the Mouth ! plays in ,the Voice ! trembles 
in the Accent ! and shows itself a thousand different ways ! even 
Melliora's care to hide it, made it more apparent; and the trans- 
ported D'Elmont, not considering where he was, or who might be 
a witness of his Rapture, could not forbear catching her in his 
Arms, and grasping her with an extasy, which plainly told her 
what his thoughts were, tho' at that time he had not power to put 
'em into words; and indeed there is no greater Proof of a vast 
and elegant Passion, than the being uncapable of expressing it." 
(p. 79.) 

Oddly enough the early experimenters in fiction never per- 
ceived that to seem real a passion must be felt by a real 
person. They attempted again and again to heighten the 
picture of envy, fear, ambition, rage, or love by all manner 
of extraordinary circumstances, but they rarely succeeded 
in attaching the emotion to a lifelike character. It was 
indeed passion, but passion painted on the void, impalpable. 
Consequently they almost never succeeded in maintaining 
complete verisimilitude, nor was their character drawing 
any less shadowy than in the sentimental romances of Sid- 
ney and Lodge. Compare, for example, the first expression 
of Rosalynde's love with the internal debate of Mrs. Hay- 
wood's Placentia. 12 Both are cast in soliloquy form, and 
except that the eighteenth century romancer makes no at- 
tempt to decorate the style with fantastic conceits, the two 
descriptions are not essentially different. 

" [Placentia] was no sooner at liberty to reflect, than she grew 
amazed at herself for having expresd, and still feeling so un- 
common a Concern for the Service she had received from Jacobin 
[Philidore] ; he did no more, said she, than was his Duty, nay, 
any Man would have done as much for a Woman to whom he had 
not the least obligation, if distressed and assaulted in the manner 

i 2 Lodge's Eosalynde, ed. E. C. Baldwin, p. 19. Philidore and 
Placentia (1727), p. 12. 



SHORT ROMANCES OP PASSION 43 

she had been — why then, continued she, does the action appear so 
charming, so meritorious from him? — 'Tis certainly the surprize 
to find so much gallantry and courage in a Man of his mean birth, 
that has caused this disorder in my Soul — were he my Equal I 
should think it was Love had seized me, but Oh! far be it from 
me to debase myself so far — Yet, again would she retort, what 
can I wish in Man that is not to be found in this too lovely Slave ? 
. . . Besides, who knows but that his Descent may be otherwise 
than he pretends — I have heard of Princes who have wandered in 
strange disguises — he may be in reality as far above me as he 
seems beneath. . . . The thought that there was a possibility for 
such a thing to be, had no sooner entered into her head than she 
indulged it with an infinity of rapture, she painted him in Imagi- 
nation the most desperate dying Lover that ever was, represented 
the transports she shou'd be in when the blest discovery shou'd 
be made, held long discourses with him, and formed answers such 
as she supposed he wou'd make on such an occasion. Thus, for 
some hours did she beguile her Cares, but Love, who takes delight 
sometimes to torment his Votarys wou'd not long permit her to 
enjoy this satisfaction. . . . Reason, with stern remonstrances 
checked the Romantick turn of her late thoughts, and showed her 
the improbability of the hope she had entertained : Were he, cryed 
she, with an agony proportioned to her former transports, of any 
degree which cou'd encourage his pretensions to my Love, he 
cou'd not for so long a Time have endured the servile Offices to 
which he has been put — Some way his ingenious passion wou'd 
have found out to have revealed itself — No, no, he is neither a 
Lover nor a Gentleman, and I but raise Chimera's to distract 
myself . . . but 111 [sic] retrieve all yet, 111 discharge him from 
my house and service — he is an Enchanter, and has bewitched me 
from my Reason, and never, never more shall he behold my face." 

The normal character in Eliza Haywood's tales almost in- 
variably conformed to some conventional type borrowed 
from the romance or the stage. The author's purpose was 
not to paint a living portrait, but to create a vehicle for the 
expression of vivid emotion, and in her design she was un- 



44 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

doubtedly successful until the reading public was educated 
to demand better things. 

On exception, however, to the customary conventionality 
of Mrs. Haywood's heroines ought to be noted. Ordinarily 
the novelist accepted the usual conception of man the pur- 
suer and woman the victim, but sometimes instead of letting 
lovely woman reap the consequences of her folly after the 
fashion of Goldsmith's celebrated lyric, she violated roman- 
tic tradition by making her disappointed heroines retire 
into self-sufficient solitude, defying society. In real life 
the author of these stories was even more uncompromising. 
Far from pining in obscurity after her elopement from her 
husband, she continued to exist in the broad light of day, 
gaining an independent living by the almost unheard of oc- 
cupation (as far as women were concerned) of writing. If 
she was blighted, she gave no indication of the fact. Some- 
thing of the same defiant spirit actuated the unfortunate 
Belinda and Cleomira of "The British Kecluse" (1722). 

Belinda, a young lady of fortune in Warwickshire, comes to 
London on business and meets at her lodging-house a mysterious 
fair recluse. Imagining that their lots may be somewhat akin, 
she induces the retired beauty to relate the history of her mis- 
fortunes. 

Cleomira upon her father's death is removed from the court to 
the country by a prudent mother. She does not take kindly to 
housewifery, and languishes until friends persuade her mother to 
let her attend a ball. There she meets the glorious Lysander, and 
in spite of her mother's care, runs away to join him in London. 
Her ruin and desertion inevitably follow. The sight of a rival 
in her place makes her frantically resolve to die by poison, but 
the apothecary gives her only a harmless opiate. Thinking her- 
self dying, she sends a last letter to her faithless lover. When 
she awakes and hears how indifferently he has received the report 
of her death, she at length overcomes her unhappy passion, and 
retires from the world. 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 45 

Belinda then relates how her marriage with the deserving 
Worthly was postponed by her father's death. In the interim 
the captivating Sir Thomas Courtal has occasion to render her a 
slight service at the overturn of her coach, and fires her with a 
passion which her mild esteem for Worthly is too weak to over- 
come. Courtal perceives and encourages her fondness, though he 
poses as Worthly's friend. She gives him an assignation in a 
wood, where she is saved from becoming a victim to his lust only 
by the timely arrival of her true admirer. In the duel that 
ensues Worthly falls, Courtal flees, and a little later Belinda goes 
to London in hopes of seeing him. At the playhouse she is only 
too successful in beholding him in a box accompanied by his wife 
and mistress. From the gossip of her friends she learns that his 

real name is Lord , and from one of the ladies she hears such 

stories of his villainy that she can no longer doubt him to be a 
monster. 

Worthly, meanwhile, has recovered from his wound and weds 
Belinda's sister. Lysander and Courtal prove to be in reality the 
same bland villain, the inconstant Bellamy. His two victims, 
sympathizing in their common misfortune, agree to retire together 
to a remote spot where they can avoid all intercourse with the 
race of men. " And where a solitary Life is the effect of Choice, 
it certainly yields more solid Comfort, than all the publick Diver- 
sions which those who are the greatest Pursuers of them can find." 

The same admirable sentiment was shared by the sur- 
viving heroine of ' ' The Double Marriage : or, the Fatal 
Release" (1726), who after witnessing a signal demonstra- 
tion of the perfidy of man, resolves to shun for ever the 
false sex. 

Dazzled by the numerous accomplishments of Bellcour, the 
charming Alathia weds him in secret. When he finds that his 
father has designed to bestow his hand upon the heiress of an 
India merchant, he dares not confess his fault, but lets himself 
be carried to Plymouth to meet his intended bride. There he de- 
termines to escape from his father during a hunting party, but 
while passing a wood, he hears cries and rescues a fair maiden 



46 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

from violation. The beautiful stranger allows him to conduct her 
back to Plymouth, and turns out to be Mirtamene, the woman he 
is to many. Though very much in love with this new beauty, 
Bellcour cannot relinquish the thought of Alathia without a strug- 
gle. But in fatal hesitation the time slips by, and he is finally 
compelled to wed a second bride. Meanwhile the deserted Alathia 
hears disquieting reports of her husband's conduct. In disguise 
as a boy she travels to Plymouth to see for herself, confronts her 
guilty partner, and after hearing his confession, stabs herself. 
Overcome by remorse and love, Bellcour imitates her, while Mirta- 
mene " warn'd by the example of Bellcour, that Interest, Absence, 
or a new Passion, can make the most seeming constant Lover 
false, took a Resolution ever to contemn and hate that betraying 
Sex to which she owed her Misfortune and the Sight of such a 
Disaster as she had beheld in Alathia." 

Not content to retire in disgust from the world, Glicera, the 
victim of fickle man in "The City Jilt" (1726) determines to 
retaliate upon the lover who has ruined and abandoned her when 
the death of her father left her without a fortune or a protector. 
To secure her revenge she encourages the advances of a senile 
alderman, Grubguard by name, whom she takes infinite delight 
in deceiving by the help of an ingenious confidant. Meanwhile 
an unfortunate lawsuit and the extravagances of his wife have 
ruined the false Melladore, who is obliged to mortgage his estate 
to Grubguard. Glicera obtains the deeds from the amorous alder- 
man, and then sends him packing. Melladore is forced to beg of 
her sufficient funds to purchase a commission and later dies in 
battle. With the fortune she has won from her various lovers 
Glicera retires from the world and henceforth shuns the society 
of men. 

In these three tales Mrs. Haywood followed the guidance 
of her own experience when it ran counter to the traditions 
of romance. The betrayed heroine ought to have died, or 
at least to have been immured in a convent to suffer a 
living death, but instead of acquiescing in their fate, Be- 
linda and Cleomira, Mirtamene, and Glicera defy the 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 47 

world, and in the last case prove that the worm may turn. 
Among the works of her first decade of authorship a few 
effusions in which Mrs. Haywood has succeeded to a degree 
in motivating, characterizing, or analyzing the passions of 
her characters, must be exempted from the general charge 
of commonplaceness. The first of these is ' ' Idalia : or, the 
Unfortunate Mistress" (1724), the story of a young Vene- 
tian beauty — like Lasselia, her charms can only be imagined 
not described — whose varied amorous adventures carry her 
over most of Italy. 

She is sought by countless suitors, among them the base Florez, 
whom her father promptly forbids the house. Idalia's vanity is 
piqued at the loss of a single adorer, and more from perverseness 
than from love she continues to correspond with him. He makes 
no further use of her condescension than to boast of her favors, 
until at the command of his patron, Don Ferdinand, he induces 
Idalia to make an assignation with him. Ferdinand meets her and 
not without difficulty at leng-th effects her ruin. Her lover's 
friend, Henriquez, in conducting her to a place of safety in Padua, 
becomes himself the victim of her charms, quarrels with Ferdi- 
nand, and slays him and is slain. Henriquez' brother, Myrtano, 
next succeeds as Idalia's adorer, but learning that he is about to 
make an advantageous marriage, she secretly decamps. In her 
flight the very guide turns out to be a noble lover in disguise. 
When she escapes from him in a ship bound for Naples, the sea- 
captain pays her crude court, but just in time to save her from 
his embraces the ship is captured by Barbary corsairs — com- 
manded by a young married couple. Though the heroine is in 
peasant dress, she is treated with distinction by her captors. Her 
history moves them to tears, and they in turn are in the midst of 
relating- to her the involved story of their courtship, when the 
vessel is wrecked by a gale. Borne ashore on a plank, Idalia is 
succored by cottagers, and continues her journey in man's clothes. 
She is loved by a lady, and by the lady's husband, who turns out 
to be her dear Myrtano. Their felicity is interrupted by the 
jealousy of Myrtano's wife, who appeals to the Pope and forces 



48 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

the lovers to separate by his order. Idalia leads a miserable life, 
persecuted by all the young gallants of Rome. One day she sees 
Florez, the first cause of all her misfortunes, pass the window, 
and with thoughts bent on revenge sends him a billet, which he 
carries to his master. Myrtano keeps the appointment, muffled 
in a cloak, and Idalia stabs him by mistake. Overcome by re- 
morse, she dies by the same knife. 

The motivation of the heroine at the beginning of the 
story, as Miss Morgan has pointed out, 13 is more elaborate 
than usual in Haywoodian romance. To show a young 
girl's vanity teasing her into an intrigue required a more 
delicate appreciation of the passions than the stock situa- 
tions in love stories afforded. Obliged to draw upon her 
own resources, Mrs. Haywood handled the incidents with 
a niceness that could hardly have been expected from the 
author of "Love in Excess." Her sense for vraisemblance 
protected her from many absurdities, though not from all. 
For instance, when Idalia to preserve herself from the im- 
portunities of Ferdinand employs the same threat of stab- 
bing herself that Clarissa Harlowe in similar circumstances 
holds over Lovelace, the Italian heroine very naturally tries 
first to stab her seducer. But realism vanishes when Idalia 
begins her romantic flight from place to place and from 
lover to lover. The incidents of romance crowd fast around 
her. When in man's clothes she is loved by a woman who 
takes her for what she seems, and by the woman's husband 
who knows her for what she is, the reader cannot help recall- 
ing a similar Gordian love-knot in Sidney's "Arcadia." 
Perhaps the only convincing detail in the latter part of the 
book is the heroine's miserable end. But although the 
sentiments of the characters are reported in concealed 
blank verse that smacks of theatrical rant, though the ab- 
surd Oriental digressions, the disguises, the frequent poi- 

13 Miss C. E. Morgan, The Novel of Manners, (1911), 100. 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 49 

sonings, and fortunate accidents all detract from the 
naturalness and plausibility of the tale, yet one cannot 
deny the piece occasional merits, which if smothered in 
extravagances, are hopeful signs of a coming change. The 
very excess of strained and unnatural incidents indicates 
that the popular palate was becoming cloyed; for a time 
the writers of fiction attempted to stimulate it by spicing 
the dish, but when the limit of mordancy was reached, a 
new diet became imperative. 

Though in no sense a soothing draught for the over- 
strained sensibilities of romance readers, "The Fatal 
Secret: or, Constancy in Distress" (1724) nevertheless 
represents a valuable part of Mrs. Haywood's contribution 
to the technique of the novel. Few of her works indicate 
more clearly her power to display the operations of passion 
dominating a young and innocent heart. 

When the story opens, Anadea is a heart-free maid of sixteen, 
better educated than most young girls, and chiefly interested in 
her studies. Fearing to leave her unprovided for, her father urges 
her to marry, and she, though inclined to a single life, returns 
a dutiful answer, begging him to direct her choice. He fixes upon 
the worthy Chevalier de Seinar, and bids her prepare for the 
wedding. 

" The Time which the necessary Preparations took up, Anadea 
pass'd in modelling her Soul, as much as possible, to be pleas'd 
with the State for which she was intended. — The Chevalier had 
many good Qualities, and she endeavoured to add to them in Imagi- 
nation a thousand more. Never did any Woman take greater 
Pains to resist the Dictates of Desire, than she did to create them 
... yet she had it not in her Power to feel any of those soft 
Emotions, those Impatiencies for his Absence, those tender Thrill- 
ings in his Presence, nor any of those agreeable Perplexities which 
are the unfailing Consequences of Love . . . and she began, at 
length, to lay the Blame on her own want of Sensibility, and to 
imagine she had not a Heart fram'd like those of other Women." 
5 



50 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

At the house of a friend Anadea meets the Count de Blessure 
and feels the starts of hitherto unsuspected passion. Beside this 
new lover the Chevalier appears as nought. Her mind is racked 
by an alternation of hope and despair. 

" In Anxieties, such as hopeless Lovers feel, did the discon- 
tented Anadea pass the Night : — She could not avoid wishing, 
though there was not the least Room for her to imagine a Possi- 
bility of what she wish'd: — She could not help praying, yet 
thought those Prayers a Sin. — Her once calm and peaceful Bosom 
was now all Hurry and Confusion : — The Esteem which she had 
been long labouring to feel for the Chevalier, was now turn'd 
to Aversion and Disdain; and the Indifference she had for all 
Mankind, now converted into the most violent Passion for one. — 
. . . she thought she could be contended to live a single Life, and 
knew so little of the encroaching Nature of the Passion she had 
entertained, that she believed she should never languish for any 
greater Joy, than that she might, without a Crime, indulge Con- 
templation with the Idea of his Perfections; and to destroy that 
pleasing Theory by marrying with another . . . was more terrible 
to her than the worst of Deaths. — Confounded what to do, or 
rather wild that there was nothing she could do that might be of 
Service to her in an Exigence like this, her Mind grew all a Chaos, 
and the unintermitting Inquietudes of her Soul not permitting any 
Repose, she . . . had a very good Pretence to keep her Chamber, 
and receive no Visits." 

She passes the day in tormenting perplexities, sometimes re- 
lieved by intervals of unsubstantial joy, when she fancies that her 
affianced may break off the match for some reason, that his sick- 
ness, an accident, or death may leave her free to wed Blessure. 
In imagination she pictures to herself happy meetings with her 
lover, and even repeats their conversation. Then recollecting her 
true situation, she lapses into real woe and bitterness of heart. 
The Count, however, has been deeply affected by her charms, and 
though he learns that she is engaged to De Semar, he sends her an 
appealing letter to discover whether the match is the result of 
choice or duty. Upon the receipt of this billet the soul of Anadea 
is distracted between the impulses of love and the dictates of pru- 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 51 

denee. Finally she writes a discreet, but not too severe reply, 
intimating that her choice is due more to duty than to inclination. 
Naturally the Count protests vehemently against her sacrificing 
herself to a man for whom she cares nothing, vows that the day 
of her wedding with Be Semar shall be his last upon earth, and 
entreats a meeting. 

"What now became of the enamour'd Anadea? How was it 
possible for a Heart so prepossessed as hers, to hold out in a 
Reserve which was very near breaking the Strings which held it. — 
. . . Yet still the Consequences that might attend this Meeting, 
for a Time repelled the Dictates of her Passion. — But it was no 
more than a faint Struggle; Love! all-conquering, all-o'er-power- 
ing Love ! triumphed over every other Consideration ! and she con- 
sented to his and her own impatient Wishes." 

Under the pretence of a change of air she goes to a friend's 
house at Versailles, where Blessure secretly weds her. After a 
short period of felicity, they are betrayed by an officious maid. 
Blessure kills the Chevalier, but is himself wounded and cast into 
prison. His father secures a pardon by promising the king's 
mistress that the Count shall marry her daughter, but Blessure 
remains constant to Anadea, though keeping his marriage a secret 
for fear of infuriating his father. He is sent away by his dis- 
pleased parent to learn the virtue of obedience, while Anadea 
retires to St. Cloud to await her husband's return. There the 
story ends in an unexpected tragedy of incest and blood. 

The back-stairs intrigues and the sensational horrors 
which to the majority of Mrs. Haywood's readers doubtless 
seemed the chief attraction of the story are not different 
from the melodramatic features of countless other amatory 
tales, French and English. But when for a dozen pages the 
author seeks to discover and explain the motives of her 
characters both by impersonal comment and by the self- 
revelation of letters, she is making a noteworthy step — 
even if an unconscious one — toward the Richardsonian 
method of laying bare the inner natures of ordinary people. 
She has here pursued the analysis of character as an end 



52 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

in itself, for in "The Fatal Secret" there is no hint of dis- 
guised scandal, nor any appeal to the pruriency of degen- 
erate readers. Sensational in the extreme the story is, but 
nevertheless the progress of the narrative is delayed while 
the sentiments of the heroine are examined in the minutest 
detail. While better known romancers exploited chiefly 
the strange and surprising adventures (other than amorous) 
of their characters, or used the voyage imaginaire for the 
purposes of satire, Eliza Haywood and her female col- 
leagues stimulated the popular taste for romances of the 
heart. In trying to depict the working of intense human 
passions they rendered a distinct service to the develop- 
ment of English fiction. 

The story of "The Mercenary Lover" (1726) involved, 
besides the ability to body forth emotion, considerable 
power to show a gradual degradation in the character of 
one of the heroines. 

The avaricious Clitander gains the moiety of a fortune by mar- 
rying the young, gay Miranda, but cannot rest without securing 
to himself the portion of the elder sister as well. Althea's thought- 
ful and less volatile nature has hitherto resisted the assaults of 
love, but her insidious brother-in-law undermines her virtue by 
giving her wanton books and tempting her with soft speeches 
until she yields to his wishes. When he attempts to make her 
sign a deed of gift instead of a will to provide for their child, she 
discovers his treachery and flees to the country. By playing upon 
her tenderness he coaxes her back and poisons her. Miranda is 
fully informed of her husband's villainy, but contents herself with 
removing from the house. Thus Clitander loses not only his 
sister-in-law's, but his wife's fortune as well, and is completely 
unmanned by remorse and apprehension. 

The contrast between the characters of the gay and 
thoughtless wife and the pensive, pure-minded girl is skil- 
fully managed, and the various steps in the downward 
course of Althea's nature are exhibited in detail. Like 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 53 

Anadea in "The Fatal Secret" she retires to her chamber 
not to sleep, but to indulge in the freedom of her thoughts, 
which are poured forth at length to let the reader into the 
secrets of her passion-ridden bosom. To reveal character 
in action was beyond the limit of Eliza Haywood's tech- 
nique; and once the story is well under way, Althea be- 
comes as colorless as only a heroine of romance can be. 
But the author's effort to differentiate the female charac- 
ters before the action begins, and to make a portion of the 
plot turn upon a psychological change in one of them shows 
that even sensation-loving readers were demanding a stricter 
veracity of treatment than had hitherto been necessary. 

But perhaps the most careful interlocking of character 
and event to be found among these embryo novels is con- 
tained in ' ' The Life of Madam De Villesache. Written by 
a Lady, who was an Eye-witness of the greatest part of her 
Adventures, and faithfully Translated from her French 
Manuscript. By Mrs. Eliza Haywood" (1727). Since' no 
original source for this story has come to light, we may 
probably assume that the French manuscript was a com- 
plete fabrication on the part of the English author. At 
any rate, the tale was one of passion and intrigue such as 
she delighted to compose. 

Henrietta, daughter of a cei'tain Duke, grows up in obscure cir- 
cumstances to be a miracle of beauty. When her father comes to 
carry her to court, her rustic lover, Clermont, pleads so effectually 
that she consents to a secret union with him. In the glare of the 
court she half forgets her country husband until too fatally re- 
minded of him by being sought in marriage by the Marquis of 

Ab lie. Her attempts at evasion are vain, and rather than 

face her father's anger, she permits herself to be married a second 
time. She has not long enjoyed her new rank when Clermont, 
whom she has informed of her step, appears to reproach her and 
to claim his rights. Still irresolute, she persuades him by tears 
and prayers not to expose her perfidy, and secretly admits him to 



54 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

a husband's privileges. In due time the pair are caught by the 
Marquis, and to avoid his rage confess their prior marriage. 
Clermont is thrown into prison, where he dies not without sus- 
picion of poison. Henrietta retires to a convent, but the Duke, 
her father, in order to gain the Marquis's estate for her unborn 
infant, manages to stifle the evidence of her first marriage. En- 
raged that he cannot obtain a divorce, the Marquis resolves to be 
revenged upon his perjured wife. He intercepts her coach in a 
wood outside of Paris and brutally murders her. The Duke orders 
her magnificently buried. Although nothing against the Marquis 
can be proved, he is not allowed to escape the vengeance of heaven, 
but goes mad and in a lucid interval just before his death confesses 
his crimes. 

The weakness and irresolution of the heroine are made 
the pivot of each turning point in the plot. When she 
yields to her lover's entreaties to consummate a hasty mar- 
riage; when fear of her father's displeasure induces her to 
keep their union a secret; when her love of luxurious 
grandeur at court persuades her to contract a more exalted 
match; when her terror of Clermont forces her into a 
shameless expedient for the sake of mollifying his anger; 
and when after her exposure by her husband, the Marquis, 
she brazens out her trial in hopes of maintaining the splen- 
dor of her rank and fortune, she is welding link by link the 
chain of circumstance that draws her to ultimate disaster. 
She is by no means a simple heroine motivated by the 
elementary passions; instead she is constantly swayed by 
emotions and desires of the most diverse and complex 
nature. After her first taste of court life she learns to 
look back on her husband's rusticity with a sort of con- 
tempt, and to regret her precipitate action. 

" Not that, she hated Clermont ; on the contrary, she had yet very 
great Remains of her former Passion for him, whenever she re- 
flected on the Endearments which had past between them: but 
then she despis'd the Meanness of his Extraction, and the 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 55 

Thoughts that she had put him in possession of a Title, which 
gave him the Power, whenever he pleas' d to exert it, of calling 
her from the present Grandeur of her State, and obliging her to 
live with him in a mean Retirement; made all Desires instigated 
by her Affection, immediately give way to that new Idol of her 
Wishes, Greatness! And she more ardently endeavour' d to find 
some Stratagem to prevent him from ever seeing her again, than 
she had formerly pray'd in the Simplicity and Innocence of her 
Affections, never to be separated from him." (p. 14). 

When an ambitious marriage is proposed, her first horror 
at the thought of deserting her country husband yields to 
a sort of resignation when she persuades herself of the 
necessity of the step. And when she considers the riches, 
title, and agreeable person of the Marquis, she almost dis- 
dains herself for hesitating to prefer him to Clermont. 
Her life is the tragedy of a soul too indolent to swim against 
the current of events. Mrs. Haywood managed to give ex- 
traordinary vividness and consistency to the character of 
the vacillating Henrietta by making the plot depend almost 
entirely upon the indecision of the heroine. Consequently 
none of the author's women are as sharply denned as this 
weak, pleasure-loving French girl. The character draw- 
ing, though too much subordinated to the sensational ele- 
ments in the story, is nevertheless distinct and true to life. 
Most probably, however, the few attempts at analysis of 
character or interrelation of character and plot were of 
little concern both to the author of emotional fiction and 
to her readers. The romancer's purpose was not to reveal 
an accurate picture of life and manners, but to thrill the 
susceptible bosom by scenes of tender love, amorous rap- 
ture, or desperate revenge. The department of sensational- 
ism especially exploited by women writers and generally 
allowed to be most suited to their genius is sufficiently indi- 
cated by the words typographically emphasized on the 



56 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

title-page of one of Mrs. Haywood's few essays. "Reflec- 
tions on the Various Effects of LOVE, According to the 
contrary Dispositions of the Persons on whom it operates. 
Illustrated with a great many Examples of the good and 
bad Consequences of that PASSION. Collected from the 
best Ancient and Modern HISTORIES. Intermix 'd with 
the latest AMOURS and INTRIGUES of Persons of the 
First Rank of both Sexes, of a certain Island adjacent to 
the Kingdom of Utopia. Written by the Author of The 
Mercenary Lover, and the Memoirs of the said Island. 
Love is not sin, but where 'tis sinful Love. Never before 
made Publick." To any contemporary connoisseur of hec- 
tic literature such a feast of Love, Passion, Histories, 
Amours, and Intrigues as this, offered in the shop of N. 
Dobb in the Strand for the small price of one shilling, 
must have been irresistible. No less moving was the appeal 
of Eliza's fiction to such Biddy Tipkins and Polly Honey- 
combes as delighted in a tale of amorous adventure, par- 
ticularly if it was set in the glittering atmosphere of the 
court. A typical story of intrigues among the great is 
"Lasselia: or, the Self- Abandoned" (1723). 

The heroine, niece of Madame de Montespan, finding herself in 
danger of becoming her aunt's rival in the affections of Louis 
XIV, goes secretly into the country to visit her friends M. and 
Mme Valier, where she falls in love with De L'Amye, a married 
gentleman. Summoned back to court by the amorous monarch, 
Lasselia chooses rather to flee from the protection of her friends 
in the disguise of a pilgrim, and led by lucky chance casts herself 
on the protection of her lover, who conveys her to a country inn 
and there maintains her for some time to their mutual felicity. 
Mile Douxmourie, once affianced to De L'Amye but jilted by him, 
accidentally discovers the pair and immediately communicates 
with the gallant's wife, who with the Valiers soon appears to re- 
claim the recreants. The wife rages at her husband, he at the 
perfidious Douxmourie, while Lasselia offers to stab herself. By 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 57 

the good offices of her friends, however, the girl is persuaded to 
enter a nunnery where she becomes a pattern of piety. De 
L'Amye is reconciled to his wife. 

In the first few pages of the story the author makes a note- 
worthy attempt to create an atmosphere of impending dis- 
aster. When De L'Amye first meets the heroine, three 
drops of blood fall from his nose and stain the white hand- 
kerchief in her hand, and the company rallies him on this 
sign of an approaching union, much to his wife's discom- 
fiture. The accident and her yet unrecognized love fill 
Lasselia's mind with uneasy forebodings. "She wou'd 
start like one in a Frenzy, and cry out, Oh ! it was not for 
nothing that those ominous Drops of Blood fell from him 
on my Handkerchief ! — It was not for nothing I was seiz 'd 
with such an unusual Horror — Nor is it in vain, that my 
Soul shrinks, and seems to dread a second Interview! — 
They are all, I fear, too sure Predictions of some fatal 
Consequence. ' ' These gloomy thoughts at length give way 
to an ecstasy of despairing love, and when her affection is 
reciprocated, to a series of passionate letters and poems, 
which indeed make necessary the author's apology for the 
"too great Warmth" of the style. 

Since the ultimate disaster of adventurous heroines was 
regarded as a sop to moral readers, Mrs. Haywood fre- 
quently failed to gratify her audience with a happy ending, 
but occasionally a departure from strict virtue might be 
condoned, provided it took place in a country far removed 
from England. The scene of ' ' The Padlock : or, No Guard 
without Virtue" 14 was appropriately laid in Spain. 

Don Lepidio of Seville, by his jealous conduct, completely 
alienates the affections of his young and beautiful wife, Violante. 
She finally writes a reply to the earnest entreaties of an unknown 

i* A companion-piece to the third edition of The Mercenary 
Lover, (1728). 



58 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

lover, and though filled with apprehension at seeing her letter 
carried off by an ugly black slave, agrees to meet him. Don 
Honorius, for it was he who had assumed the disguise of the slave, 
proves to be the wonder of his sex. He persuades her to elope 
to the house of one of his relations, and after Lepidio has secured 
a divorce, marries her with great felicity. 

That novels of intrigue, even without the tinsel of court 
dress and the romance of French or Spanish setting, were 
acceptable to Eliza Haywood's public is shown by the two 
parts of "The Masqueraders -. or, Fatal Curiosity" (1724-5), 
which in the most luscious language of passion narrate the 
philanderings of a "charming Rover" called Dorimenus, 
"whose real Name, for some Reasons, I shall conceal." 
London masquerades, as the title indicates, play a large 
part in the plot. A more sprightly tale, though still of the 
unedifying sort, is ' ' Fantomina : or, Love in a Maze. Being 
the Secret History of an Amour 'between two Persons of 
Condition." The story is so fantastic that it can hardly 
be suspected of having any connection w T ith an actual occur- 
rence, but the novelist was not unaware of the advertising 
value of hinted scandal. 

A young lady of distinguished birth, beauty, wit, and spirit for 
a frolic goes masked to the theatre, and there falling in love with 
the agreeable Beauplaisir, begins an intrigue with him. When his 
ardor cools, she lures him on again under a different disguise, and 
thus manages four several liaisons successively as Fantomina, 
Celia the Chambermaid, the Widow Bloomer, and the fair Incog- 
nita. Meanwhile she meets her lover frequently in public assem- 
blies without ever arousing his suspicion of her double, or rather 
manifold identity. But at length she is unable to disguise the 
effects of her imprudence, her gallant ungallantly refuses to marry 
her, and the fair intriguer is packed off to a convent in France. 

Though the story cannot pretend to support the cause of 
morality, the style of this piece is unusually clear and 



SHORT ROMANCES OP PASSION 59 

straightforward, sometimes suitably periphrastic, but never 
inflated. The passion described is that of real life untar- 
nished by romance. Only greater refinement was needed to 
make the entertainment fit for ladies and gentlemen. 

The cardinal defect of some of Mrs. Haywood 's romances- 
in-little lay, however, in a romantic over-refinement of the 
passions rather than in a too vigorous animalism. Full of the 
most delicate scruples is ' ' The Surprise : or, Constancy Re- 
warded" (1724), 15 appropriately dedicated to the Sir Gala- 
had of comedy, Sir Richard Steele. The story relates how 
Euphemia discovers that the seemingly faithless Bellamant 
has, in reality, abandoned her on the day set for their 
marriage because he was unwilling to have her share in the 
loss of his fortune. She, meanwhile, has inherited a con- 
venient sum, redeems him from his creditors, and after 
practicing a little mystification to test his constancy, leads 
him to the altar. Few of Mrs. Haywood's novels are more 
entirely moral or more essentially dull. 

Though the scene of ' ' The Rash Resolve : or, the Untimely 
Discovery" (1724) is laid in Porto Rico and in Spain, the 
romancer took little advantage of her opportunity to intro- 
duce the usual "cloak and sword" incidents of Spanish 
fiction. Instead her tale is one of generous love and melt- 
ing pathos more characteristic of the romance than of the 
novella or its successors. 

The Porto Rican heiress, Emanuella, is defrauded of her for- 
tune by her guardian, Don Pedro, and imprisoned in his house to 
force her to marry his son, Don Marco. That generous lover 
helps her to escape to Madrid, and to emphasize the truth of her 
claims against his wily father, falls upon his sword in the pres- 
ence of the court. Emanuella's title to her fortune cleared by this 
extraordinary measure, she continues to reside at the house of 

1 5 A companion-piece to The Fatal Secret: or, Constancy in 
Distress. 



60 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Don Jabin, whose daughter, Berillia, she saves from a monastery 
by making up the deficiency in her dowry. The ungrateful girl, 
however, resents Emanuella's disapproval of her foppish lover, 
and resolves to be revenged upon her benefactress. She, there- 
fore, forwards Emanuella's affair with Emilius until the lovers 
are hopelessly compromised; then taking advantage of the loss of 
the lady's fortune at sea, blackens her character to Emilius and 
provokes him to desert her. The abandoned Emanuella enters a 
convent. 

Emilius is challenged by Octavio as a rival in the love of Julia, 
and though he had never before heard of the lady, he soon becomes 
her lover in fact, and eventually marries her. Emanuella escapes 
from the nunnery and wanders to a little provincial town where 
she bears a son to Emilius. Berillia, who has been rusticated to 
a village near by in consequence of her amour, encounters her 
unfortunate friend by chance and runs away from her duenna to 
join her. She persuades Emanuella to draw a large sum on Don 
Jabin, robs her, and goes to join her gallant. The injured lady 
supports her child by mean drudgery until by chance she meets 
Emilius and his wife, who do all they can to comfort her. But 
worn out by her afflictions, she dies of a broken heart, leaving 
her son to be adopted by his father. 

Dr. Johnson might with equal truth have said to Mrs. Hay- 
wood as to the author of the "Memoirs of Miss Sydney 
Biddulph, " " I know not, Madam, that you have a right . . . 
to make your readers suffer so much." Even the pathetic 
"History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy" has nothing to 
surpass the train of woes exhibited in this earlier tale. 

In the same "soft" style are two novels, "The Unequal 
Conflict: or, Nature Triumphant" (1725) and its sequel, 
"Fatal Fondness: or, Love its own Opposer." The plot 
begins with the writer's favorite situation. 

Philenia, affianced to Coeurdemont, falls in love with Filla- 
mour. By the help of a confidant, Antonia, the lovers are enabled 
to arrange a plan of escape. On the eve of the wedding Filla- 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 61 

mour breaks into the house and, leaving his servants to bind and 
gag the father, flies immediately to his soul's adored. 

" He threw himself on his knees, as he approach'd the dear mis- 
tress of his soul, and with a voice and manner all soft and love- 
inspiring. — Now madam, said he, if the adoring Fillamour is not 
unworthy the glory of your deliverance, I come to offer it, and to 
assure you, that not only this, but the service of my whole future 
life is entirely devoted to you. The innocent Philenia had not 
presently the power of replying, the different emotions of love, 
and shame, fear, and joy, made such a confusion in her sentiments, 
that she could only look the meanings of them all: Fillamour, 
however, found enough in this mute language to make him know, 
he was in as fair a way of happiness, as he cou'd wish; and re- 
turning her glances with others as languishing, as the most melt- 
ing longing love cou'd teach the loveliest eyes in the world, they 
continued, for some moments, thus transmitting souls — " until 
their confidant hurries them out of the house. 

After the elopement Fillamour is distracted by the opposing 
motives of love and interest. To marry Philenia means ruin, for 
his ambitious uncle, who has proposed an advantageous marriage 
to him, would never forgive him for a love match. The innocent 
cause of his distress finally discovers his perplexity and agrees 
to live a single life until they can marry without loss of fortune. 
In this state of affairs " their love seem'd to be a copy of that pure 
and immaterial passion, which angels regard each other with, and, 
which we are allow'd to hope shall be our portion, when, shaking 
off our earth, we meet in a happier world, where we are to live 
and love forever." The lovers' paradise is invaded by Philenia's 
father, who carries her home and locks her up more closely than 
before. In a short time she has the shocking intelligence that 
Fillamour has married according to the wishes of his worldly 
uncle. She still remains constant to him, but " the remainder of 
her yet surprising adventures," remarks the author, " and those 
of Antonia and Coeurdemont must be told another time, having 
good reason to doubt my reader will be tir'd, when I am so 
myself." 



62 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Eliza was perhaps the first to recover from the fatigue, 
for in a little more than two months the continuation, cost- 
ing sixpence more than the first instalment, was offered to 
her readers. 

After making his marriage of convenance Fillamour again pays 
his court to Philenia, and seizing a lucky moment to surprise her 
on her daily walk, half by persuasion, half by force, carries his 
point. But before they can meet a second time she is carried off 
by a gang of villains, who mistake her for another woman. The 
languishing Misimene, who has pursued Fillamour into the coun- 
try in man's clothes, consoles him for the loss of his first love. 
Upon his return to town he finds that his wife has fled to join 
her lover. Meanwhile Philenia's honor is preserved by timely 
shipwreck of the vessel in which the ravishers are carrying her 
off. Washed ashore on the inevitable plank, she supports herself 
among the fisher folk by weaving nets until after a year's toil she 
is relieved by Antonia and Coeurdemont, now happily married. 
The relation of their adventures occupies some pages. Philenia 
comes back to town to find her lover weltering in his blood, stabbed 
by the jealous Misimene. Believing him dead, she seizes the same 
sword, plunges it into her bosom, and instantly expires. Misi- 
mene goes into frenzies, and Fillamour alone recovers to live out 
a life of undying grief. 

" Thus was the crime of giving way to an unwarrantable pas- 
sion, punish'd in the persons of Philenia and Misimene, and that 
of perjury and ingratitude in Fillamour; while the constancy of 
Antonia, and the honour of Coeurdemont, reeeiv'd the reward their 
virtues merited, and they continued, to their lives end, great and 
shining examples of conjugal affection." 

Apparently Philenia's adventures were somewhat too im- 
probable even for the taste of readers steeped in melo- 
dramatic romances, for if we may judge by the few copies 
that have survived, these effusions did not enjoy a wide 
popularity. But not to be discouraged by failure, Mrs. 
Haywood soon produced another extravagant and compli- 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 63 

eated romance, entitled "Cleomelia: or, the Generous Mis- 
tress. Being the Secret History of a Lady Lately arriv'd 
from Bengali" (1727). The scene might equally well have 
been laid in the Isle of Wight, but Bengal on the title-page 
doubtless served to whet the curiosity of readers. 

Gasper, secretly affianced to Cleomelia, is conveyed out of Ben- 
gal by an avaricious father to prevent him from marrying, and 
she, believing him unfaithful, gives her hand to the generous 
Heartlove. Informed of the truth by a letter from her lover an- 
nouncing his speedy return, she boards a ship bound for England, 
leaving her husband and lover to fight a duel in which Heartlove 
falls. Meanwhile the heroine is shipwrecked, finds a new suitor 
in the ship's captain, and hearing of her husband's death and of 
Gasper's marriage to a Spanish lady, marries the captain. Hardly 
has he departed on his first voyage, when the still faithful Gasper 
returns to claim her, only to find her again the bride of another. 
In despair he goes to England, and when her second husband is lost 
at sea, she follows to reward his constancy. 

Cleomelia 's generosity does not seem to be as notable as the 
sub-title would indicate, but the story was evidently in- 
tended to illustrate virtues exalted to a high romantic level. 
With the same end in view Mrs. Haywood attempted an 
even loftier flight into the empyrean of romance, with the 
result that "Philidore and Placentia: or, L 'Amour trop 
Delicat" (1727) is more conventional and stilted than any 
other work from her pen. It imitates closely the heroic 
French romances, both in the inflated style and elaborate re- 
gard for the tender passion, and in the structure of the plot 
with little histories of the principal characters interspersed 
at intervals throughout the story. In substance the tale 
is simply a mosaic of romantic adventures, though some of 
the hero's wanderings in the desert after being marooned 
by pirates and especially his encounter with the "tyger" 
sound like a faint echo of ' ' Captain Singleton " or of Cap- 
tain John Smith's "True Travels." 



64 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

The noble Philidore falls in love with the rich and beautiful 
Placentia, but as his estate is no match for hers, he contents him- 
self with entering her service in disgTuse and performing menial 
offices for the pleasure of seeing her. One day she hears him sing- 
ing in a grotto, and is charmed by the graceful replies he makes 
to her questions. A little later he saves her from robbers at the 
expense of a slight wound. She offers to make him groom of her 
chamber, but fearful of being recognized, he declines. Finally 
she lays her fortune at his feet, but he has too much generosity 
to accept the offer. Leaving a letter revealing his true rank and 
his poverty, he sails for Persia. Some time later, the return of 
Placentia's long lost brother, by depriving her of her fortune, puts 
her on a level with her lover. 

Philidore is captured by pirates and with eleven others set on 
shore on a desert strand. Three of the little company reach civi- 
lization. After recuperating their strength, they set out for 
Persia overland, but a tiger deprives Philidore of his two com- 
panions. A little later he rescues an unknown youth from three 
assailants, but not before the stranger has been seriously wounded. 
A passing traveller carries them to the castle of a Persian noble- 
man. There Philidore waits with the utmost impatience for the 
wounded man to recover strength enough to relate his story, but 
this, as also the misfortunes, perplexities, and dangers to which 
the despairing passion of the enamoured Placentia occasioned her 
to reduce herself, and the catastrophe of Philidore's surprising 
fate, must be told in a Second Part. 

Part II. The youthful stranger, concealing his name and fam- 
ily, relates the sad effects of his love for the favorite wife of the 
Bashaw of Liperto, and how by her aid he was enabled to escape 
from slavery, only to be pursued and about to be retaken by jani- 
zaries when rescued by Philidore. 

Our hero is kindly received by his uncle in Persia, who soon dies 
and leaves him sole heir of an enormous fortune. He is now 
Placentia's equal in wealth as well as rank, and immediately em- 
barks for England. Driven into Baravat by contrary winds, he is 
moved to ransom a female captive on hearing of her grief at her 
hard fate, but what is his surprise when the fair slave proves to 



SHORT ROMANCES OP PASSION 65 

be Plaeentia. " Kisses, embraces, and all the fond endearments 
of rewarded passion made up for their want of speech — in their 
expressive looks, and eager graspings, the violence of their mutual 
flame was more plainly demonstrated, than it could have been by 
the greatest elegance of language — those of the Persians that stood 
by, Who understood not English, easily perceived, not only that 
they were lovers, but also that they were so to the most unbounded 
height of tender passion." 

Plaeentia relates how she had eluded her brother and set sail to 
rejoin her lover, how she had been saved from the arms of the 
brutal ship's captain by a timely attack of pirates, and how, sold 
to a Moslem merchant and still annoyed by the attentions of the 
captain, she had abandoned all thoughts of life till redeemed by 
Philidore's generosity. 

With Plaeentia, her maid, and young Tradewell, the maid's 
lover, ransomed, Philidore sails blissfully to England. But upon 
landing Plaeentia becomes suddenly cold to him. He forces his way 
into her house, and finds that her brother is the young stranger 
whose life he had saved in Persia. Meanwhile Plaeentia, whose 
fortune is now no match for Philidore's, flees to parts unknown, 
leaving a letter conjuring him to forget her. After a long search 
the brother and lover find her place of concealment, and the former 
removes her scruples by settling a large estate upon her. " Noth- 
ing could be more splendid than the celebration of their nuptials; 
and of their future bliss, the reader may better judge by their 
almost unexampled love, their constancy, their generosity and no- 
bleness of soul, than by any description I am able to give of it." 

"Philidore and Plaeentia" is one of the few novels by 
Mrs. Haywood that do not pretend to a moral purpose. 
Realism needed some justification, for realism at the time 
almost invariably meant a picture of vice and folly, and 
an author could not expose objectionable things except in 
the hope that they would lessen in fact as they increased 
in fiction. But in spite of the disapproval sometimes ex- 
pressed for fables on the ground of their inherent untruth, 
idealistic romances were generally justified as mirrors of 
6 



66 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

all desirable virtues. Pious Mrs. Penelope Aubin wrote 
no other kind of fiction, though she sometimes admitted a 
deep-dyed villain for the sake of showing his condign pun- 
ishment at the hands of providence. It was perhaps due 
to the sale of this lady's novels, largely advertised toward 
the end of 1727 and apparently very successful, that Mrs. 
Haywood was encouraged to desert her favorite field of 
exemplary novels showing the dangerous effects of passion 
for an excursion into pure romance. That she found the 
attempt neither congenial nor profitable may be inferred 
from the fact that it was not repeated. 

If the highly imaginary romances suffered from an ex- 
cess of delicacy, certain other tales by Mrs. Haywood over- 
leaped decency as far on the other side. The tendency of 
fiction before Richardson was not toward refinement. The 
models, French and Spanish, which writers in England 
found profit in imitating, racked sensationalism to the 
utmost degree by stories of horrible and perverted lust. 
All the excitement that could be obtained from incest, 
threatened, narrowly averted, or actually committed, was 
offered to eager readers. Usually, as in Defoe's "Moll 
Flanders" or Fielding's "Tom Jones," ignorance of birth 
was an essential element in the plot. A story of this type 
in which the catastrophe is prevented by a timely discovery 
of the hero's parentage, is "The Force of Nature: or, the 
Lucky Disappointment" (1725). 

Felisinda, daughter of Don Alvario of Valladolid, falls in love 
with a dependent of her father's named Fernando, who returns 
her passion, but when by a dropped letter she reveals their mutual 
tenderness, her father becomes exceedingly disordered and threatens 
to marry her out of hand to Don Carlos, who had long solicited 
the match. That generous lover, however, refuses to marry her 
against her will. The disappointment proves mortal to Don Al- 
vario, who leaves his estate to Felisinda and Fernando equally, 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 67 

provided they do not marry each other. Felisinda is committed to 
the care of an abbess named Berinthia, but by the aid of a pro- 
bationer, Alantha, the lovers manage to correspond. They agree 
that Fernando shall convert his moiety to ready money, convey it 
to Brussels, and there await Felisinda, whose escape he entrusts 
to a friend, Oleomas. Alantha, meantime, has fallen in love with 
Fernando, and substitutes herself for Felisinda. Oleomas in con- 
ducting the supposed mistress of his friend to the nearest port 
falls under the influence of her beauty and attempts to betray her, 
but is prevented and slain by a chance passenger, who turns out 
to be Carlos. He brings Alantha to a better mind, and conducts 
her in search of Fernando, but they discover in Brussels that he 
has set out again for Spain. When Fernando reaches Valladolid 
to inquire what has become of Oleomas and his lady, he is arrested 
on the charge of abducting Alantha. At the trial he is accused 
of having made away with her, and is sentenced to death, where- 
upon Berinthia, the abbess, faints, and being revived, owns him 
for her son by Alvario, and " in tears and blessings pours out all 
the mother on him." At the proper moment Carlos comes in with 
Alantha to prove Fernando's innocence. Felisinda rewards the 
constancy of Carlos, and Fernando can do no less than marry 
Alantha, 

Incest is almost the only crime not to be found in the 
extraordinary series of barefaced and infamous intrigues 
crowded into the pages of "The Injur 'd Husband: or, the 
Mistaken Resentment" (1723). The author naively re- 
marks in the dedication that "The Subject of the Trifle I 
presume to offer, is, The Worst of Women," and she has 
indeed out-villained the blackest of her male villains in the 
character of the wicked Baroness. 

The doting Baron de Tortillee marries the lascivious and ex- 
travagant Mademoiselle La Motte, who promotes the villainous 
Du Lache to be the instrument of her vile pleasures. After en- 
joying several lovers of his procuring, she fixes her affections upon 
the worthy Beauclair. Du Lache despairs of ensnaring him, be- 
cause he is about to marry the lovely Montamour, but by a series 



68 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

of base expedients he manages to blacken the character of that 
lady in her lover's eyes, and to put the charms of the Baroness 
in such a light that Beauclair is at length drawn in to pay his 
court to her. For some time she thus successfully deludes her 
husband, but when the despicable La Branche openly boasts of 
her favors and allows some of her letters to fall into the hands 
of one of her numerous lovers, her perfidy is soon completely 
exposed. To add to her confusion she hears that the Baron, whom 
she had drugged into idiocy and sent into the country, has been 
cured by a skilful physician and is about to return. Du Lache 
despatches two assassins to murder him on the road, but the Baron 
by a lucky chance escapes the murderers, forces them to confess, 
and sets out to punish his guilty wife. Meanwhile Beauclair sus- 
pects that he has wronged his innocent lady and endeavors to see 
her, but she at first refuses to see him, and when by a ruse he gains 
access to her presence, will not listen to him or give him any 
grounds for hope. In despair he returns to Paris and meets the 
young Vrayruent. He discovers the infamous Du Lache hiding 
in a convent. To save his life the wretch offers to reveal the 
frauds he had put in practice against Montamour, but while he 
is doing so, the Baron meets them, and concluding that Beauclair 
is in collusion with the villain, attacks them both. Beauclair dis- 
arms his antagonist and is about to return him his weapon, when 
Du Lache stabs the Baron in the back. Vrayment has witnessed 
the quarrel and summoned assistance. Beauclair and Du Lache 
are haled before a magistrate and are about to be condemned 
equally for the crime, when Vrayment reveals herself as Monta- 
mour disguised as a man, and persuades the judge that Beauclair is 
innocent. Du Lache and his accomplices are broken on the wheel, 
the Baroness takes poison, and Beauclair is united to his faithful 
Montamour. 

In the conduct of the story the writer shows no deficiency 
in expressing the passions, but rather a. want of measure, 
for thrill follows thrill so fast that the reader can hardly 
realize what is happening. And as if the lusts and crimes 
of the ftaroness did not furnish enough sensational inci- 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 69 

dents, the tender romance of Beauclair and Montamour is 
superadded. The hero is a common romantic type, easily 
inconstant, but rewarded above his merits by a faithful 
mistress. A woman disguised as a man was a favorite 
device with Mrs. Haywood as well as with other writers of 
love stories, but one need read only the brazen Mrs. Charke 's 
memoirs or Defoe's realistic "Moll Flanders" to discover 
that it was a device not unheard of in real life. The actual 
occurrence of such disguises, however, made no difference 
to the female writers of fiction. Anything soul-stirring, 
whether from romances or from plays, was equally grist to 
their mills. 

In seeking for the most dramatic denouements sensational 
romancers were not long in perceiving the suspense that 
could be produced by involving the chief characters in a 
trial for their lives. Mrs. Behn had by that means con- 
siderably protracted the interest in "The Fair Jilt: or, 
the Amours of Prince Tarquin and Miranda" (1688), and 
Mrs. Haywood, following her example, succeeded in giving 
a last stimulus to the jaded nerves of the readers of "The 
Force of Nature" and "The Injur 'd Husband." And 
finally the title-page of an anonymous work attributed to 
her indicates that the struggling authoress was not insen- 
sible to the popular demand for romances of roguery. A 
prospective buyer might have imagined that he was secur- 
ing a criminal biography in "Memoirs of the Baron de 
Brosse, Who was Broke on the Wheel in the Reign of Lewis 
XIV. Containing, An Account of his Amours. With 
Several Particulars relating to the Wars in those Times," 
but the promise of the title was unfulfilled, for Mrs. Hay- 
wood was no journalist to make capital out of a malefactor's 
exit from the world. The whole book is a chronicle of the 
Baron's unsuccessful pursuit of a hard-hearted beauty 
named Larissa, mingled with little histories of the Baron's 



70 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

rivals, of a languishing Madam de Monbray, and of Larissa 's 
mother. The fair charmer finally marries a count, and her 
lover, plunged into adequate despair, can barely exert him- 
self to answer a false accusation trumped up by the re- 
vengeful Monbray. With the verdict in his favor the story 
ends abruptly, and the promised continuation was appar- 
ently never written. We read nothing of the wars, nor of 
the Baron's execution on the wheel. 

Tortures, tragedies of blood, and heinous crimes added 
piquancy to Mrs. Haywood's love stories, but were not the 
normal material of her romances. Her talent was chiefly 
for ' ' soft things. ' ' She preferred the novel of intrigue and 
passion in which the characters could be run through a 
breathless maze of amatory adventures, with a pause now 
and again to relate a digressive episode for variety's sake. 
Typical of this sort, the best adapted to the romancer's 
genius, is "The Agreeable Caledonian: or, Memoirs of 
Signiora di Morella, a Roman Lady, Who made her Escape 
from a Monastery at Viterbo, for the Love of a Scots Noble- 
man. Intermix 'd with many other Entertaining little His- 
tories and Adventures which presented themselves to her 
in the Course of her Travels. ' ' No moralizing, no romantic 
idealism disturbs the rapid current of events. It is a pure 
"cloak and sword" novel, definitely located in Italy, with 
all the machinery of secret assignations, escapes from con- 
vents, adventures on the road and at inns, sudden assaults, 
duels, seductions, and revenge characteristic of Spanish 
fiction. 

Don Jaques di Morella determines to marry his daughter, Clem- 
entina, to a certain Cardinal, who has offered to renounce the 
scarlet hat for love of her. When she piques her lover by her 
evident unwillingness to wed, Don Jaques packs her off to a con- 
vent at Viterbo. By picking up a copy of verses Clementina be- 
comes acquainted with Signiora Miramene, who relates the history 
of her correspondence with the Baron Gleneairn. 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 71 

Clementina becomes the instrument of the lovers, but no sooner 
sees the lovely North Briton than she herself is captivated. In 
response to her proffered affection, Glencairn manages by an ex- 
traordinary device to convey her out of the convent. In spite 
of the rage of Dan Jaques they escape to Sienna. The further 
surprising turns in their affairs to be later communicated to the 
public. 

Part II. At Sienna the lovers enjoy a season of perfect felicity 
until Don Jaques comes to town in pursuit of a defaulting steward, 
discovers Clementina, and apprehends the pair. While the two 
are confined in separate convents awaiting trial, Clementina's 
maid, Ismenia (who has already related her little history), becomes 
their go-between and serves her mistress the same trick that Clem- 
entina had already played upon her friend Miramene. Ismenia 
and the faithless Baron decamp to parts unknown, while Clemen- 
tina's father starts back to Rome with his recreant daughter. In 
man's clothes she escapes from her parent to seek revenge upon 
her lover. At an inn she hears a woman in the next room com- 
plaining of her gallant's desertion, and going in to console her, 
hears the moving story of Signiora Vicino and Monsieur Beau- 
mont, told as a warning to the credulous and unwary sex. The 
injured fair enters a convent. 

Still in pursuit of her lover, Clementina on Montelupe meets the 
funeral of a young woman who had been torn to pieces by wolves. 
The chief mourner proves to be Glencairn. She is hindered in an 
attempt to stab him and thrown into prison, where he visits her 
and disarms her resentment by offering to many her. After the 
ceremony they proceed to Paris where each plunges into dissipa- 
tion. Finally they separate, Clementina dies of a fever, and the 
Baron is left free to pursue his inclinations through a possible 
third part, which, however, was never written. 

After a slumber of forty years "The Agreeable Cale- 
donian" was reprinted, as the "Monthly Review" informs 
us, from a copy corrected by Mrs. Haywood not long before 
her death. 16 The review continues, "It is like the rest of 

is Monthly Review, XXXVIII, 412, May, 1768. Clementina; or 
the History of an Italian Lady, who made her Escape from a Mon- 
astery, etc. 



72 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Mrs. Haywood's novels, written in a tawdry style, now 
utterly exploded ; the romances of these days being reduced 
much nearer the standard of nature, and to the manners of 
the living world." Realism is, indeed, far to seek in the 
brief but intricate tissue of incidents that made the novel 
of 1728. To a taste accustomed to "Sir Charles Grand- 
ison," and "Peregrine Pickle," and "The Sentimental 
Journey" the rehash of Eliza Haywood's novel must have 
seemed very far even from the manners of the world of 
fiction. The judgment of the "Critical Review" was still 
more savage in its accuracy. 17 "This is a republication of 
a dull, profligate Haywoodian production, in which all the 
males are rogues, and all the females whores, without a 
glimpse of plot, fable, or sentiment." In its uncompromis- 
ing literalness the critic's verdict ranks with the learned 
Ascham's opinion of the "Morte D 'Arthur," — except that 
it has not been superseded. The same animadversion might 
be urged against Defoe's "Colonel Jacque" or "The For- 
tunate Mistress." If Mrs. Haywood sinned against the 
Standards of the age to come, she was not out of touch with 
the spirit of her own generation. 

As a writer she knew but one unfailing recipe for popu- 
larity : whatever she touched must be forthwith gilded with 
passion. The chief raison d'etre for "The Fair Hebrew: 
or, a True, but Secret History of Two Jewish Ladies, Who 
lately resided in London" (1729) was to gratify the preju- 
dices of anti-Semitic readers, yet it is hardly distinguish- 
able from her sentimental love stories. 

The young and gay Dorante, going to the synagogue for a lark, 
is tempted by the sight of a fair hand to break into the woman's 
apartment and to expose himself to the charms of the beautiful 
Kesiah. He engages her in a correspondence, but at their first 
interview she gives him clearly to understand that he can gain 

17 Critical Review, XXV, 59. 



SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION 73 

nothing from her but by marriage. Driven by his unhappy pas- 
sion, he complies with her demand, and she becomes a Church of 
England woman. But once married, Kesiah is too proud to per- 
mit the concealment that prudence demands. Though his father 
is sure to disinherit them, she insists upon revealing the marriage. 
Dorante entrusts his small stock of money to his wife's brother, 
Abimelech, in order to start him in trade. The Jew goes to Hol- 
land with a woman whom he has saved from religious murder at 
the hands of a Levite, and nothing further is heard from him or 
the money. Imprisoned by his creditors, Dorante is persuaded 
by his wife to sign away the entail of his estate in return for a 
sum of money. Thereupon she departs with the gold and a new 
gallant, leaving her unhappy husband to be rescued from want by 
the kindness of a younger brother. After the poor solace of hear- 
ing that Kesiah and her paramour have been lost at sea, he dies 
of a broken heart. 18 

Though Eliza Haywood exhausted nearly every possible 
bit of sensationalism that could be extracted from tales of 
passion, she almost never made use of the heroic feats of 
arms which constituted a no less important resource of the 
French romances. Her heroes are victors in love 'but not in 
war. The sole exception is a little romance of Moorish 
chivalry in the eighth century. Though this period had 
already been pre-empted by Mrs. Manley's "Memoirs of 
Europe," there is little doubt that Mrs. Haywood was re- 
sponsible for "The Arragonian Queen: A Secret History" 
(1724), a peculiar blend of heroic adventures in battle, 
bullfight, and tournament, with amorous intrigues of the 
most involved kind. 

Prince Albaraizor of Arragon goes to assist Omar, King of Va- 
lencia, against a traitorous foe, and with the help of the young 

is In both editions is advertised ' ' Persecuted Virtue : or, the Cruel 
Lover. A True Secret History, Writ at the Request of a Lady of 
Quality, ' ' which was advertised also in the Daily Post, 28 Nov. 1728. 
I have not found a copy. 



74 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

general, Abdelhamar, succeeds in vanquishing the enemy, though 
the latter youth is seriously wounded while performing miracles 
of valor. To reward the conqueror the hand of the Princess Zeph- 
alinda is bestowed upon him, but she unfortunately is already 
enamored of Abdelhamar, whom she had learned to love at a bull- 
fight. But in spite of a repining letter from her constant lover, 
and in spite of his appearance before her all pale and trembling 
from his wounds, the Princess refuses to deviate from her duty. 

" The next Day the Marriage was celebrated with all the in- 
tended Magnificence, and on their return from the Mosque, the 
Prince and Princess repair'd to a stately Scaffold, adorn'd with 
inventive Luxury, whence they might behold a Tournament, the 
Prize of which was a Sword richly embellish'd with Diamonds, to 
be given by the Princess to him that should overcome; the whole 
Court were there, endeavouring to outshine each other in the Cost- 
liness of their Apparel — within the Barriers were all the Flower 
of the adjoining Kingdoms, drawn thither with a Thirst of Fame, 
and a Desire to shew their Dexterity. The Arragonian Noblemen 
were the Defenders against all Comers, and were like to have 
carried away the Prize, behaving themselves with the utmost Skill 
and Courage, when there appeared in the Lists a Knight in black 
Armour, whose whole Air and dexterity in Horsemanship imme- 
diately attracted the Eyes of the numerous Spectators; the first 
Course he made, confirm'd them in the good opinion they had con- 
ceiv'd of him: in short, no body was able to stand against him, 
and he remained Conqueror, with the universal Applause of the 
whole Company. — He waited for some time, to see if no fresh 
Challengers would offer themselves; but none appearing, he was 
led to the Princess's Scaffold, to receive the Reward he had so 
well merited : He took it with the greatest Submission, but without 
putting up his Beaver, or discovering who he was, and kissing it 
with profound Respect, retir'd, without so much as making any 
obeisance to the King or Prince; and mixing himself with the 
Crowd of Knights, got off without being discover'd. Every body 
was surpriz'd at the uncourteous Behaviour of so otherwise ac- 
complish'd a Cavalier, but none could possibly give the least guess 
at who it should be — the succeeding Diversions soon put him out 



SHORT ROMANCES OP PASSION 75 

of every body's Thoughts but Zephalinda's ; she well knew it could 
be none but Abdelhamar, and trembled lest he should have been 
discovered, fearing his concealing his Recovery, and his disrespect- 
ful Carriage towards her Father and her Husband, might have 
given room to Surmises prejudicial to her Honour: but when 
watching him with her Eyes, and seeing him get off unfollow'd, 
or observ'd, she then began afresh to pine at Fate, who could 
render Abdelhamar Conqueror in every Action that he undertook, 
and only vanquished when he fought in hopes of gaining her." 

The Prince and his bride return to their own countiy to receive 
the crown. By the most tender assiduities Albaraizor has almost 
succeeded in gaining the love of his wife when Abdelhamar again 
intrudes as ambassador to congratulate him on his coronation. 
Though her old love returns more strongly than ever, the Queen 
guards her honor well, and insists that her lover marry Selyma, 
a captive Princess. But that lady, stung by Abdelhamar's indif- 
ference, learns to hate him, and out of revenge persuades the King 
that his wife is unfaithful to him. An indiscreet letter from Ab- 
delhamar confirms his suspicions. He orders both Queen and 
ambassador cast into prison and by his woes destroys the happi- 
ness of the whole court. 

The passages relating the monarch's love and jealousy 
are described with a fulness entirely lacking in the tourna- 
ment scene quoted above, and we may fairly infer that both 
writer and reader were more deeply interested in affairs of 
the heart than in feats of arms, however glorious. The 
emphasis given to love rather than to war in this tale is 
significant as a contrast to the opposite tendency in such 
romances of a century later as "Ivanhoe," in which a 
tournament scene very similar in outline to that in "The 
Arragonian Queen" is told with the greatest attention to 
warlike detail, while the love story, though not allowed to 
languish, is kept distinctly subordinate to the narrative of 
chivalric adventure. Mrs. Haywood, however, was too 
warm-blooded a creature to put aside the interests of the 
heart for the sake of a barbarous Gothic brawl, and too ex- 



76 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

perienced a writer not to know that her greatest forte lay 
in painting the tender rather than the sterner passions. 

In this respect she forms a decided contrast to Defoe, 
whose men and women are almost never startled out of 
their matter-of-fact attitude. His picaresque characters, 
though outwardly rogues or their female counterparts, have 
at bottom something of the dissenting parson and cool-- 
headed, middle-aged man of business. Whatever else they 
may be, they are never love-sick. Passion is to them a 
questionable asset, and if they marry, they are like to have 
the matter over with in the course of half a paragraph. 
Eliza Haywood, however, possessed in excess the one gift 
that Defoe lacked. To the scribbling authoress love was 
the force that motivated all the world. Crude and conven- 
tional as are many of her repeated attempts to analyze the 
workings of a mind under the sway of soft desires, she 
nevertheless succeeded now and then in actuating her 
heroines with genuine emotion. Both romance and realism 
were woven into the intricate web of the Richardsonian 
novel, and the contribution of Mrs. Haywood deserves to be 
remembered if only because she supplied the one element 
missing in Defoe's masterpieces. Each writer in his day 
was considered paramount in his or her particular field. 19 

19 An anonymous poem prefixed to Mrs. Elizabeth Boyd's The 
Happy Unfortunate; or, the Female Page (1737) testifies to Mrs. 
Haywood's reputation in the following terms: 

' ' Yeild [sic] Heywood yeild, yeild all whose tender Strains, 
Inspire the Dreams of Maids and lovesick Swains; 
Who taint the unripen'd Girl with amorous Fire, 
And hint the first faint Dawnings of Desire: 
Wing each Love-Atom, that in Embryo lies, 
And teach young Parthenissa 's Breasts to rise. 
A new Elisa writes," etc., etc. 



CHAPTER III 

THE DUNCAN CAMPBELL PAMPHLETS 

Only once did Eliza Haywood compete with Defoe upon 
the same ground. Both novelists were alive to the value of 
sensational matter, but as we have seen, appealed to the 
reader's emotional nature from different sides. Defoe with 
his strong interest in practical life looked for stirring inci- 
dents, for strange and surprising adventures on land and 
sea, for unusual or uncanny occurrences; whereas Mrs. 
Haywood, less a journalist than a romancer, rested her claim 
to public favor upon the secure basis of the tender passions. 
In the books exploiting the deaf and dumb prophet Duncan 
Campbell, whose fame, once illustrated by notices in the 
"Tatler" and "Spectator," 1 was becoming a little dimmed 
by 1720, each writer chose the kind of material that the 
natural propensity and previous experience of each had 
trained him or her to use with the greatest success. 

Accordingly the "History of the Life and Adventures of 
Mr. Duncan Campbell, a gentleman who, though deaf and 
dumb, writes down any stranger's name at first sight, with 
their future contingencies of fortune : Now living in Exeter 
Court, over against the Savoy in the Strand," published 
by Curll on 30 April, 1720, and written largely by Defoe, 
devoted only four chapters directly to the narrative of the 
conjuror's life, while four chapters and the Appendix were 
given over to disquisitions upon the method of teaching 
deaf and dumb persons to read and write; upon the per- 
ception of demons, genii, or familiar spirits ; upon the 
second sight ; upon magic in all its branches ; and upon the 

i Tatler, No. 14; Spectator, Nos. 323, 474, 560. 
77 



78 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

laws against false diviners and soothsayers. Beside show- 
ing the keenness of his interest in the supernatural, the 
author deliberately avoided any occasion for talking gossip 
or for indulging ''persons of airy tempers" with senti- 
mental love-tales. "Instead of making them a bill of fare 
out of patchwork romances and polluting scandal," reads 
the preface signed by Duncan Campbell, "the good old 
gentleman who wrote the adventures of my life has made it 
his business to treat them with a great variety of entertaining 
passages which always terminate in morals that tend to the 
edification of all readers, of whatsoever sex, age, or pro- 
fession. ' ' Those who came to consult the seer on affairs of 
the heart, therefore, received only the scantiest mention 
from his biographer, and never were the. languishing and 
sighing of Mr. Campbell's devotees described with any 
romantic glamor. On the contrary, Defoe portrayed in 
terse and homely phrases the follies and affectations of the 
dumb man's fair clients. The young blooming beauty who 
found little Duncan "wallowing in the dust" and bribed 
him with a sugarplum to reveal the name of her future 
husband; the "sempstress with an itching desire for a 
parson"; housekeepers in search of stolen goods; the 
"widow who bounced" from one end of the room to the 
other and finally "scuttled too airily downstairs for a 
woman in her clothes ' ' ; and the chambermaid disguised as 
a fine lady, who by "the toss of her head, the jut of the 
bum, the sidelong leer of the eye ' ' proclaimed her real con- 
dition — these types are treated by Defoe in a blunt realistic 
manner entirely foreign to Eliza Haywood's vein. Some 
passages, 2 perhaps, by a sentiment, too exalted or by a 
2 Particularly the incongruous description of Duncan Campbell 's 
first appearance in London, where the writer finds the "heavenly 
youth" seated like a young Adonis in the "center of an angelic 
tribe" of "the most beautiful females that ever my eyes beheld," 
etc. G. A. Aitken 's edition of The Life and Adventures of Mr. Dun- 
can Campbell, 87-9. 



THE DUNCAN CAMPBELL PAMPHLETS 79 

description in romantic style suggest the hand of another 
writer, possibly Mrs. Haywood, but more probably William 
Bond, in whose name the reprint of 1728 was issued. 3 But 
in the main, the book reflected Defoe's strong tendency to 
speculate upon unusual and supernatural phenomena, and 
utterly failed to "divulge the secret intrigues and amours 
of one part of the sex, to give the other part room to make 
favorite scandal the subject of their discourse." 4 

That Defoe had refrained from treating one important 
aspect of Duncan Campbell's activities he was well aware. 
"If I was to tell his adventures with regard, for instance, 
to women that came to consult him, I might, perhaps, have 
not only written the stories of eleven thousand virgins that 
died maids, but have had the relations to give of as many 
married women and widows, and the work would have been 
endless. ' ' 5 In his biography of the Scotch prophet he does 
not propose to clog the reader with any adventures save the 
most remarkable and those in various ways mysterious. 

3 The Supernatural Philosopher ... by William Bond, of Bury 
St. Edmonds, Suffolk. The preface signed by Campbell to Defoe's 
Life and Adventures states that the book was revised by "a young 
gentleman of my acquaintance." Professor Trent, however, in- 
cludes Mrs. Haywood with Bond as a possible assistant in the revi- 
sion. See The Cambridge History of English Literature, IX, 23. 

* Neither Defoe nor Mrs. Haywood contributed to the little budget 
of miscellaneous matter prefixed to the second issue of the Life and 
Adventures (August, 1720) and sometimes found separately under 
the title: Mr. Campbell's Pacquet, for the Entertainment of Gentle- 
men and Ladies. Containing I. Verses to Mr. Campbell, Occasioned 
by the History of his Life and Adventures. By Mrs. FowJce, Mr. 
Philips, &c. II. The Parallel, a Poem. Comparing the Poetical Pro- 
ductions of Mr. Pope, with the Prophetical Predictions of Mr. Camp- 
bell. By Capt. Stanhope, [i. e. W. Bond.] III. An Account of a 
most surprising Apparition; sent from Launceston in Cornwall. 
Attested by the Rev. Mr. Buddie, Minister there. London: For T. 
Bickerton. 1720. See W. Lee, Daniel Defoe, 322-8. 

s Life and Adventures of Mr. Dun-can Campbell, 171. 



80 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

The "method of swelling distorted and commented trifles 
into volumes" he is content to leave to the writers of fable 
and romance. It was not long before the press-agents of 
the dumb presager found a romancer willing to undertake 
the task that Defoe neglected. Mrs. Haywood in her asso- 
ciation with Aaron Hill and his circle could hardly have 
escaped knowing William Bond, who in 1724 was playing 
Steele to Hill's Addison in producing the numbers of the 
"Plain Dealer." Instigated perhaps by him, the rising 
young novelist contributed on 19 March, 1724, the second 
considerable work on the fortune-teller, under the caption : 
"A Spy upon the Conjurer: or, a Collection of Surprising 
Stories, with Names, Places, and particular Circumstances 
relating to Mr. Duncan Campbell, commonly known by the 
Name of the Deaf and Dumb Man; and the astonishing 
Penetration and Event of his Predictions. Written to my 

Lord by a Lady, who for more than Twenty Years 

past ; has made it her Business to observe all Transactions 
in the Life* and Conversation of Mr. Campbell. " 5a 

' ' As long as Atalantis shall be read, ' ' some readers were 
sure to find little to their taste in the curious information 
contained in the first biography of Campbell, but Mrs. Hay- 
wood was not reluctant to gratify an appetite for scandal 
when she could profitably cater to it. Developing the clue 
afforded her by the announcement in Defoe's "Life and 
Adventures" of a forthcoming little pocket volume of 
original letters that passed between Mr. Campbell and his 
correspondents, 6 she composed a number of epistles as com- 

sa This volume was announced in the British Journal as early as 
Dec. 15, 1722. 

6 She or Bond may have inserted the passage to advertise a pro- 
jected work. Mr. Spectator had already remarked of the letters that 
came to his office: '"I know some Authors, who would pick up a 
Secret History out of such materials, and make a Bookseller an Al- 
derman by the Copy." (No. 619.) 



THE DUNCAN CAMPBELL PAMPHLETS 81 

ing from all sorts of applicants to the prophet. These 
missives, however, were preceded by a long letter addressed 
to an anonymous lord and signed "Justicia," which was 
chiefly concocted of anecdotes illustrative of the dumb 
man's powers. Unlike the incidents in Defoe's work, the 
greater number of the stories relate to love affairs in the 
course of which one party or the other invoked the seer's 
assistance. Although the author was thoroughly acquainted 
with the previous history of Mr. Campbell, 7 she was evi- 
dently more interested in the phenomena of passion than in 
the theory of divination. A 'brief discussion of astrology, 
witchcraft, and dreams easily led her to a narrative of ' ' Mr. 
Campbell's sincerity exemplify 'd, in the story of a lady 
injured in the tenderest part by a pretended friend." A 
glance through the table of contents reveals the preponder- 
ance of such headings as " A strange story of a young lady, 
who came to ask the name of her husband"; "A whimsical 
story of an old lady who wanted a husband " ; " Reflections 
on the inconstancy of men. A proof of it in a ruin'd girl, 
that came to ask Mr. Campbell 's advice " ; "A story of my 
Lady Love-Puppy"; "A merry story of a lady's chamber- 
maid, cook-maid, and coach-man," and so on. Evidences 
of an attempt to suggest, if not actual references to, con- 
temporary scandal, are to be found in such items as "A 
strange instance of vanity and jealousy in the behaviour of 

Mrs. F "; "The particulars of the fate of Mrs. 

J L "; and "A story of the Duke of 's 

mistress." It is not surprising that "Memoirs of a Cer- 
tain Island" appeared within six months of "A Spy upon 
the Conjurer." 

When "Justicia" refers to her personal relations with 
the lord to whom her letter is addressed, her comments are 

7 Defoe's Life and Adventures is mentioned on pp. 17 (with a quo- 
tation), 61, 111, 246, 257. 
7 



82 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

still more in keeping with the acknowledged forte of the 
lady novelist. They are permeated with the tenclerest emo- 
tions. The author of "Moll Flanders" and "The For- 
tunate Mistress" might moralize upon the unhappy conse- 
quences of love, but he was inclined to regard passion with 
an equal mind. He stated facts simply. Love, in his 
opinion, was not a strong motive when uncombined with 
interest. But Eliza Haywood held the romantic watchword 
of all for love, and her books are a continual illustration of 
Amor vincit omnia. In the present case her words seem to 
indicate that the passions of love and jealousy so often 
experienced by her characters were not unfamiliar to her 
own breast. Even Duncan Campbell's predictions were 
unable to alter her destiny. 

" But tho' I was far enough from disbelieving what he said, yet 
Youth, Passion, and Inadvertency render'd his Cautions inef- 
fectual. It was in his Hand-Writing I first beheld the dear fatal 
Name, which has since been the utter Destruction of my Peace: 
It was from him I knew I should be undone by Love and the Per- 
fidy of Mankind, before I had the least Notion of the one, or had 
seen any of the other charming enough to give me either Pain or 
Pleasure. . . . Yet besotted as I was, I had neither the Power of 
defending myself from the Assaults of Love, nor Thought sufficient 
to enable me to make those Preparations which were necessary for 
my future Support, while I had yet the means" . . . (p. 13). 

"Yet so it is with our inconsiderate Sex! — To vent a present 
Passion, — for the short liv'd Ease of railing at the Baseness of an 
ungrateful Lover, — to gain a little Pity, — we proclaim our Folly, 
and become the Jest of all who know us. — A forsaken Woman 
immediately grows the Object of Derision, — rallied by the Men, 
and pointed at by every little Flirt, who fancies herself secure in 
her own Charms of never being so, and thinks 'tis want of Merit 
only makes a Wretch. 

" For my dear Lord, I am sensible, tho' our Wounds have been 
a long time heal'd, there yet remains a Tenderness, which, if 
touch'd, will smart afresh. — The Darts of Passion, such as we have 



THE DUNCAN CAMPBELL PAMPHLETS 83 

felt, make too indeliable an Impression ever to be quite eraz'd; — 
they are not content with the eternal Scar they leave on the Repu- 
tation . . ." (p. 76). 

These passages are in substance and style after Eliza Hay- 
wood's manner, while the experiences therein hinted at do 
not differ essentially from the circumstances of her own life. 

The various aspects of love and jealousy are also the 
theme of the second and third parts of "A Spy upon the 
Conjurer. ' ' 8 The two packets of letters were merely imagi- 
nary, unless the pseudonymous signatures of some of the 
missives may have aided contemporary readers to ' ' smoke ' ' 
allusions to current gossip. At any rate the references are 
now happily beyond our power to fathom. 

Apparently the taste for Duncan Campbell anecdotes was 
stimulated by the piquant sauce of scandal, for beside the 
several issues of "A Spy upon the Conjurer" a second and 
smaller volume of the same sort was published on 10 May, 
1725. This sixpenny pamphlet of forty pages, entitled 
"The Dumb Projector: Being a Surprizing Account of a 
Trip to Holland made by Mr. Duncan Campbell. With 
the Manner of his Reception and Behaviour there. As also 
the various and diverting Occurrences that happened on his 
Departure," was, like the former work, couched in the 
form of a letter to a nobleman and signed "Justicia." 
Both from internal evidence 9 and from the style it can be 

s Part II. Being a Collection of Letters found in Mr. Campbell 's 
Closet. By the Lady who wrote the foregoing sheets. Part III. 
Containing some Letters from Persons of Mr. Campbell's more par- 
ticular Acquaintance. 

9 ' ' The Pleasure with which you received my Spy on the Conjurer, 
encourages me to offer you a little Supplement to it, having since 
my finishing that Book, had the opportunity of discovering some- 
thing concerning Mr. Campbell, which I believe your Lordship will 
allow to be infinitely more surprizing than any Thing I have yet re- 
lated." The Dumb Projector, 5. Mr. G. A. Aitken, in his intro- 



84 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

assigned with confidence to the author of "A Spy upon the 
Conjurer." The story, relating how Mr. Campbell was 
induced to go into Holland in the hope of making his for- 
tune, how he was disappointed, the extraordinary instances 
of his power, and his adventures amatory and otherwise, is 
of little importance as a narrative. The account differs 
widely from that of Campbell's trip to the Netherlands in 
the "Life and Adventures" of 1720. 

Soon after the publication of "The Dumb Projector" 
Defoe also made a second contribution to the now consider- 
able Duncan Campbell literature under the title of "The 
Friendly Daemon: or, the Generous Apparition. Being a 
True Narrative of a Miraculous Cure newly performed 
upon . . . Dr. Duncan Campbell, by a familiar Spirit, that 
appeared to him in a white surplice, like a Cathedral Sing- 
ing Boy. ' ' The quotation of the story from Glanvil already 
used by the prophet's original biographer, and the keen 
interest in questions of the supernatural displayed by the 
writer, make the attribution of this piece to Defoe a prac- 
tical certainty. Evidently, then, Eliza Haywood was not 
the only one to profit by keeping alive the celebrity of the 
fortune-teller. 

The year 1728 was marked by the reissue of the "Life 
and Adventures" as "The Supernatural Philosopher . . . 
by William Bond," whose probable connection with the 
work has already been discussed, and by the publication in 
the "Craftsman" 10 of a letter, signed "Fidelia," describ- 

duction to Defoe's Life and Adventures, gives the two pieces unhesi- 
tatingly to Mrs. Haywood, while other students of Defoe, — Leslie 
Stephen, Lee, Wright, and Professor Trent, — are unanimous in their 
opinion that the first exploiter of the dumb wizard could have had 
no hand in the writing of these amplifications. The latest bibliogra- 
pher of romances and tales, Mr. Arundell Esdaile, however, follows 
the B.M. catalogue in listing The Dumb Projector under the con- 
venient name of Defoe. 

io No. 125, Saturday, 23 November, 1728. 



THE DUNCAN CAMPBELL PAMPHLETS 85 

ing a visit to Duncan Campbell. The writer, who pro- 
fesses an intense admiration for Mr. Caleb D'Anvers and 
all his works, relates how the dumb oracle, after writing 
down her name, had prophesied that the Craftsman would 
certainly gain his point in 1729. She concludes with praise 
of Mr. Campbell, and an offer to conduct Caleb to visit him 
on the ensuing Saturday. That the communication was 
not to be regarded as a companion-piece to the letter from 
Dulcibela Thankley in the "Spectator" (No. 474), was the 
purport of the editorial statement which introduced it : "I 
shall make no other Apology for the Vanity, which I may 
seem guilty of in publishing the following Letter, than 
assuring the Reader it is genuine, and that I do it in Com- 
plyance with the repeated Importunity of a fair Corre- 
spondent." The style of the letter does not strongly sug- 
gest that of "A Spy upon the Conjurer," though the con- 
cluding sentence, "Love shall be there too, who waits for- 
ever upon Wit," is a sentiment after Eliza's heart. And 
moreover, though "Fidelia" and "Justicia" may be one 
and the same persons, Mr. D'Anvers' assurances that the 
letter is genuine are not to be relied upon with too much 
confidence, for had he wished to praise himself, he would 
naturally have resorted to some such device. 

The last volume relating to the Scotch wizard did not 
appear until 1732, two years after Campbell's death. 
"Secret Memoirs of the late Mr. Duncan Campbel, The 
famous Deaf and Dumb Gentleman. Written by Himself, 
who ordered they should be publish 'd after his Decease," 
consisted of 164 pages devoted to miscellaneous anecdotes 
of the prophet, a reprint of Defoe's "Friendly Daemon" 
(p. 166), "Original Letters sent to Mr. Campbel by his 
Consulters" (p. 196), and "An Appendix, By Way of 
Vindication of Mr. Duncan Campbel, Against That ground- 
less Aspersion cast upon him, That he but pretended to be 



86 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Deaf and Dumb. By a Friend of the Deceased" (p. 225). 
The authorship of this book has received but slight atten- 
tion from students of Defoe, and still remains something of 
a puzzle. No external evidence on the point has yet come 
to light, but some probable conclusions may be reached 
through an examination of the substance and style. 

In the first place, there is no probability — the state- 
ment on the title-page notwithstanding — that Mr. Campbell 
himself had anything to do with the composition of the 
"Memoirs." Since the magician had taken no part in the 
literary exploitation of his fame during his lifetime, it is 
fair to infer that he did not begin to do so two years after 
his death. Moreover, each of the three writers, Bond, 
Defoe, and Eliza Haywood, already identified with the 
Campbell pamphlets was perfectly capable of passing off 
fiction as feigned biography. Both the author of "Memoirs 
of a Cavalier" and the scribbler of secret histories had 
repeatedly used the device. There is no evidence, however, 
that William Bond had any connection with the present 
work, but a large share of it was almost certainly done by 
Defoe and Mrs. Haywood. 

The former had died full of years on 26 April, 1731, 
about a year before the "Secret Memoirs" was published. 
It is possible, however, that he may have assembled most of 
the material for the book and composed a number of pages. 
The inclusion of his "Friendly Damion" makes this suspi- 
cion not unlikely. And furthermore, certain anecdotes 
told in the first section, particularly in the first eighty pages, 
are such stories as would have appealed to Defoe 's penchant 
for the uncanny, and might well have been selected by him. 
The style is not different from that of pieces known to be 
his. 

But that the author of "Robinson Crusoe" would have 
told the "little History" of the young woman without a 



THE DUNCxVN CAMPBELL PAMPHLETS 87 

fortune who obtains the husband she desires by means of a 
magic cake (p. 86) is scarcely probable, for the story is a 
sentimental tale that would have appealed to love-sick 
Lydia Languishes. As far as we know, Defoe remained 
hard-headed to the last. But Mrs. Haywood when she was 
not a scandal-monger, was a sentimentalist. The story 
would have suited her temperament and the tastes of her 
readers. It is told so much in her manner that one could 
swear that the originator of the anecdote was aut Eliza, aut 
diabola. A few pages further on (p. 104) appears the 
incident of a swaggerer who enters the royal vault of West- 
minster A'bbey at dead of night on a wager, and having the 
tail of his coat twitched by the knife he has stuck in the 
ground, is frightened into a faint — a story which Mrs. 
Haywood later retold in different words in her "Female 
Spectator." 11 The "Secret Memoirs" further informs us 
by a casual remark of Mr. Campbell's that Eliza Haywood 
was well acquainted with the seer. 

" Sometimes, when surrounded by my Friends, such as Anthony 

Hammond, Esq; Mr. Philip Horneek, Mr. Philips, Mr. , 

Mrs. Centlivre, Mrs. Fowk, Mrs. Eliza Haywood, and other cele- 
brated Wits, of which my House, for some Years has been the 
general Rendezvous, a good Bowl of Punch before me, and the 
Glass going round in a constant Circle of Mirth and Good Hu- 
mour, I have, in a Moment, beheld Sights which has froze my 
very Blood, and put me into Agonies that disordered the whole 
Company" (p. 131). 

The last anecdote in the first section is a repetition at some 
length of the story of Campbell's adventures in Holland, 
not as related in Defoe's "Life and Adventures," but ac- 
cording to the version in Mrs Haywood's "Dumb Pro- 
jector." The beginning, which has to do with a grave old 
gentleman who was bit by a viper, is told in almost the same 
ii The Female Spectator, 1745, II, 246. 



88 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

words; indeed some letters that passed between the charac- 
ters are identically the same, and the end, though much ab- 
breviated, contains a number of sentences taken word for 
word from the earlier telling of the story. Finally, Mrs. 
Haywood was the first and hitherto the only writer of the 
Campbell pamphlets who had printed letters supposedly 
addressed to the prophet by his clients. The device was 
peculiarly hers. The "Original Letters sent to Mr. Camp- 
bel by his Consulters ' ' in the ' ' Secret Memoirs ' ' are similar 
to those already composed by her for "A Spy upon the 
Conjurer." There is no reason to think that she did not 
invent the later epistles as well as the former. 

If, then, a number of anecdotes in the "Secret Memoirs" 
are suggestive of Mrs. Haywood's known writings, and if 
one of them remained in her memory thirteen years later; 
if the pamphlet carefully alludes to Eliza Haywood as one 
of the dumb seer's particular friends, and if it repeats in 
slightly different form her peculiar account of the dumb 
projector's journey into Holland; and if, finally, the book 
contains a series of letters to Campbell from fictitious cor- 
respondents fashioned on the last already used by her, we 
may conclude that in all likelihood the authoress whose 
name had previously been associated with Duncan Camp- 
bell literature was again concerned in writing or revising 
this latest work. At least a cautious critic can say that 
there is no inherent improbability in the theory that Defoe 
with journalistic instinct, thinking that Campbell's death 
in 1730 might stimulate public interest in the wizard, had 
drafted in the rough the manuscript of a new biography, 
but was prevented by the troubles of his last days from 
completing it; that after his death the manuscript fell 
into the hands of Mrs. Haywood, or perhaps was given 
to her by the publishers Millan and Chrichley to finish; 
that she revised the material already written, supplemented 



THE DUNCAN CAMPBELL PAMPHLETS 89 

it with new and old matter of her own, composed a packet 
of Original Letters, and sent the volume to press. The 
origin of the "Appendix, by Way of Vindication of Mr. 
Duncan Campbel" remains unknown, and any theory about 
the authorship of the "Secret Memoirs" must be regarded 
in last analysis as largely conjectural. lla 

Though the author of the original "Life and Adventures" 
has received most of the credit due to Campbell 's biographer, 
Mrs. Haywood, as we have seen, was not less active in ex- 
ploiting the deaf and dumb gentleman. Her ' ' Spy upon the 
Conjurer" was fubbed off upon the public as often as 
Defoe's earlier volume, and neither writer could claim any 
advantage over the other from his second and slighter con- 
tribution. Each held successfully his own coign of vantage. 
Eliza Haywood, in contemporary opinion, outranked Defoe 
almost as far as an interpreter of the heart as he surpassed 
her in concocting an account of a new marvel or a tale of 
strange adventure. The arbitress of the passions indeed 
wrote nothing to compare in popularity with "Robinson 
Crusoe," but before 1740 her "Love in Excess" ran through 
as many editions as "Moll Flanders" and its abridgments, 
while "Idalia: or, the Unfortunate Mistress" had been 
reprinted three times separately and twice with her col- 
lected novels before a reissue of Defoe's "Fortunate Mis- 
tress" was undertaken. When in 1740 Applebee published 
a new edition of ' ' Roxana, ' ' he had it supplemented by " a 
continuation of nearly one hundred and fifty pages, many 
of which are filled with rubbish about women named Cleo- 
mira and Belinda." 12 Here again Mrs. Haywood's red 

na in 1734 appeared a compilation of tables for computing Easter, 
etc., entitled Time's Telescope Universal and Perpetual, Fitted for 
all Countries and Capacities .... By Duncan Campbell. What 
connection, if any, this book had with the fortune-teller or with any 
of the persons connected with his biography appears not to have 
been determined. 

12 G. A. Aitken, Introduction to The Fortunate Mistress, viii. 



90 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

herring crossed the trail of Defoe, for oddly enough the 
sheets thus accurately characterized were transcribed word 
for word from Eliza's second novel, "The British Recluse." 
At the point where the heroine swallows a sleeping potion 
supposing it poison, faints, and is thought to be dead, the 
narrative breaks off abruptly with the words : 

" Though the History of Cleomira and Belinda's Misfortunes, 
may be thought foreign to iny Affairs . . . yet it is absolutely 
necessary I should give it a Place, because it is the Source, or 
Spring, of many strange and uncommon Scenes, which happened 
to me during the remaining Part of my Life, and which I cannot 
give an Account of without" . . . 13 

The pages which follow relate how Roxana became recon- 
ciled to her daughter, died in peace, and was buried at 
Hornsey. The curious reader finds, however, no further 
mention of Belinda and her friend. Evidently Applebee's 
hack simply stole as much copy as he needed from an almost 
forgotten book, trusting to receive his money before the 
fraud was discovered. The volumes of Eliza Haywood were 
indeed a mine of emotional scenes, and those who wished 
to read of warm desires or palpitating passions had to turn 
to her romances or do without. Wretched as her work 
seems in comparison to the modern novel, it was for the 
time being the nearest approach to idealistic fiction and to 
the analysis of human feelings. Defoe's romances of inci- 
dent were the triumphant culmination of the picaresque 
type; Mrs. Haywood's sentimental tales were in many re- 
spects mere vague inchoations of a form as yet to be pro- 
duced. But when freed from the impurities of intrigue and 
from the taint of scandal, the novel of heart interest became 
the dominant type of English fiction. 

13 The Fortunate Mistress; or, a History of the Life and Vast 
Variety of Fortunes of Mademoiselle de Beleau. . . . London: 
Printed for E. Applebee. 1740. p. 359. Pp. 300-59 are taken from 
The British Becluse. 



THE DUNCAN CAMPBELL PAMPHLETS 91 

Unfortunately, however, Eliza Haywood was too practical 
a writer to outrun her generation. The success of "A Spy 
upon the Conjurer" may have convinced her that a ready 
market awaited stories of amorous adventure and hinted 
libel. At any rate, she soon set out to gratify the craving 
for books of that nature in a series of writings which re- 
dounded little to her credit, though they brought her wide 
notoriety. 



CHAPTER IV 

SECBET HISTOEIES AND SCANDAL NOVELS 

Some tentative experiments in the way of scandal-mon- 
gering may be found in Mrs. Haywood's work even before 
the first of her Duncan Campbell pamphlets. Many of the 
short romances discussed in the second chapter were de- 
scribed on the title-page as secret histories, while others 
apparently indistinguishable from them in kind were de- 
nominated novels. "Love in Excess" and "The Unequal 
Conflict," for instance, were given the latter title, but a tale 
like "Fantomina," evidently imaginary, purported to be 
the "Secret History of an Amour between two Persons of 
Condition." "The British Recluse" was in sub-title the 
"Secret History of Cleomira," and "Cleomelia: or, the 
Generous Mistress" claimed to be the "Secret History of 
a Lady Lately arriv'd from Bengali." The writer attached 
no particular significance to her use of the term, but em- 
ployed it as a means of stimulating a meretricious interest 
in her stories. In fact she goes out of her way in the 
Preface to "The Injur 'd Husband" to defend herself and 
at the same time to suggest the possibility that her novel 
might contain references to English contemporaries. The 
defence is carefully worded so that it does not constitute 
an absolute denial, but rather whets the curiosity. 

" It is not, therefore, to excuse my Want of Judgment in the 
Conduct, or my Deficiency of Expressing the Passions I have en- 
deavour 5 d to represent, but to clear myself of an Accusation, 
which, I am inform'd, is already contrived and prepared to 
thunder out against me, as soon as this is publish'd, that I take 
this Pains. 

92 



SECRET HISTORIES AND SCANDAL NOVELS 93 

"A Gentleman, who applies the little Ingenuity he is Master 
of to no other Study than that of sowing Dissention among those 
who are so unhappy, and indeed unwise, as to entertain him, either 
imagines, or pretends to do so, that tho' I have laid the Scene in 
Paris, I mean that the Adventure shou'd be thought to have hap- 
pen'd in London; and that in the Character of a French Baroness 
I have attempted to expose the Reputation of an English Woman 
of Quality. I shou'd be sorry to think the Actions of any of our 
Ladies such as cou'd give room for a Conjecture of the Reality of 
what he wou'd suggest. But suppose there were indeed an Affin- 
ity between the Vices I have describ'd, and those of some Woman 
he knows (for doubtless if there be, she must be of his Acquaint- 
ance) I leave the World to judge to whom she is indebted for 
becoming the Subject of Ridicule, to me for drawing a Picture 
whose Original is unknown, or to him who writes her Name at the 
Bottom of it. 

"However, if I had design'd this as a Satyr on any Person 
whose Crimes I had thought worthy of it, I shou'd not have thought 
the Resentment of such a one considerable enough to have obliged 
me to deny it. But as I have only related a Story, which a par- 
ticular Friend of mine assures me is Matter of Fact, and happen'd 
at the Time when he was in Paris : I wou'd not have it made Use 
of as an Umbrage for the Tongue of Scandal to blast the Char- 
acter of any one, a Stranger to such detested Guilt." 

Before long the term "secret history" fell into disrepute, 
so that writers found it necessary to make a special plea 
for the veracity of their work. "The Double Marriage," 
"The Mercenary Lover," and "Persecuted Virtue" were 
distinguished as ' ' true secret histories, ' ' and in the Preface 
to "The Fair Hebrew : or, a True, but Secret History of Two 
Jewish Ladies, Who lately resided in London" Mrs. Hay- 
wood at once confessed the general truth of the charge 
against the type and defended the accuracy of her own 
production. 

" There are so many Things, meerly the Effect of Invention, 
which have been published, of late, under the Title of SECRET 



94 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

HISTORIES, that, to distinguish this, I am obliged to inform my 
Reader, that I have not inserted one Incident which was not related 
to me by a Person nearly concerned in the Family of that unfor- 
tunate Gentleman, who had no other Consideration in the Choice 
of a Wife, than to gratify a present Passion for the Enjoyment 
of her Beauty." 

About 1729 Eliza Haywood seems to have found the word 
"Life" or "Memoirs" on the title-page a more effective 
means for gaining the credence of her readers, and after 
that time she wrote, in name at least, no more secret his- 
tories. The fictions so denominated in "Secret Histories, 
Novels and Poems" were in no way different from her 
novels, and had only the slightest, if any, foundation in 
fact. 

A novel actually based upon a real occurrence, however, 
is "Dalinda, or the Double Marriage. Being the Genuine 
History of a very Recent, and Interesting Adventure" 
(1749), not certainly know r n to have been written by Mrs. 
Haywood, but bearing in the turns of expression, the let- 
ters, and the moralized ending, almost indubitable marks of 
her handiwork. One at least of her favorite quotations 
comes in at an appropriate point, and the Preface to the 
Reader states that the author's sole design is to show the 
danger of inadvertently giving way to the passions — a stock 
phrase with the author of ' ' Love in Excess. ' ' The ' ' Monthly 
Review" informs us that the story is "the affair betwixt 
Mr. Cresswell and Miss Scrope, thrown into the form of a 
novel." 1 The situation is somewhat similar to that de- 
scribed in "The Mercenary Lover." 

Dalinda's unhappy passion for Malvolio incites him to ruin her, 
and though he deludes her with an unregistered marriage at the 
Fleet, he has no scruples against marrying the rich Flavilla. 
Wishing to possess both Flavilla's fortune and Dalinda's charms, 

i Monthly Eeview, I, 238. July, 1749. 



SECRET HISTORIES AND SCANDAL NOVELS 95 

he effects a reconciliation with the latter by promising to own their 
prior contract, but when he comes out into the open and proposes 
to entertain her as a mistress, she indignantly returns to her 
grandmother's house, where she summons her brother and her 
faithful lover, Leander, to force her perfidious husband to do her 
justice. The latter half of the novel is a tissue of intrigue upon 
intrigue, with a complication of lawsuits and letters in which Mal- 
volio's villainy is fully exposed, and he is forced to separate from 
Flavilla, but is unable to exert his claims upon Dalinda. She in 
turn cannot wring from him any compensation, nor can she in 
conscience recompense the faithful love of Leander while her hus- 
band is living. Thus all parties are sufficiently unhappy to make 
their ways a warning to the youth of both sexes. 

Evidently the history, though indeed founded on fact, 
differs from the works of Mrs. Haywood 's imagination only 
in the tedious length of the legal proceedings and the uncer- 
tainty of the outcome. The only reason for basing the 
story on the villainy of Mr. Cresswell was to take advantage 
of the momentary excitement over the scandal. A similar 
appeal to the passion for diving into the intrigues of the 
great is apparent in the title of a novel of 1744, "The 
Fortunate Foundlings: Being the Genuine History of Col- 
onel M rs, and his Sister, Madame du P y, the 

issue of the Hon. Ch es M rs. Son of the late 

Duke of R L D. Containing many wonderful Acci- 
dents that befel them in their Travels, and interspersed 
with the Characters and Adventures of Several Persons of 
Condition, in the most polite Courts of Europe." The 
Preface after the usual assurances that the work is com- 
piled from original documents and is therefore more vera- 
cious than "the many Fictions which have been lately im- 
posed upon the World, under the specious Titles of Secret 
Histories, Memoirs, &c, ' ' informs us that the purpose of the 
publication is to encourage virtue in both sexes by showing 
the amiableness of it in real characters. Instead of expos- 



96 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

ing vice in the actions of particular persons, the book is a 
highly moral laudation of those scions of the house of 
Manners whose names are adumbrated in the title. It 
cannot, therefore, be classed as a scandal novel or secret 
history. 

The latter term, though loosely applied to the short tale 
of passion for the purpose of stimulating public curiosity, 
meant strictly only that type of pseudo-historical romance 
which interpreted actual history in the light of court in- 
trigue. In France a flood of histories, annals, anecdotes, 
and memoirs, — secret, gallant, and above all true, — had 
been pouring from the press since 1665. The writers of 
these works proceeded upon the ostensible theory that secret 
history in recognizing woman's influence upon the destiny 
of nations was more true than "pure" history, which took 
into account only religious, political, social, or moral factors 
in judging the conduct of kings and statesmen. Did not 
Anthony suffer the world to slip from his fingers for the 
love of Cleopatra? Although the grand romances had a 
little exhausted the vein of classical material, Mme Durand- 
Bedacier and Mme de Villedieu compiled sundry annals of 
Grecian and Roman gallantry. 2 But the cycle of French 
secret history was much more extensive. Romancing his- 
torians ferreted out a prodigious amount of intrigue in 
every court from that of Childeric to Louis XIV, and set 
out to remodel the chronicle of the realm from the stand- 
point of the heart. Nearly every reign and every romantic 
hero was the subject of one or more "monographs," among 
which Mme de La Fayette's "Princesse de Cleves" takes a 
prominent place. The thesaurus and omnium gatherum of 
the genus was Sauval's "Intrigues galantes de la cour de 

2 Mme de Villedieu, Annates galantes de Grece and Les exiles de 
la cour d'Auguste. Mme Durand-Bedacier, Les belles Grecques, ou 
I'histoire des plus fameuses courtisanes de la Grece. 



SECRET HISTORIES AND SCANDAL NOVELS 97 

France" (1695), of which Dunlop remarks that "to a pas- 
sion, which has, no doubt, especially in France, had con- 
siderable effect in state affairs, there is assigned ... a 
paramount influence." But romancers with a nose for 
gallantry had " no difficulty in finding material for their 
pens in England during the times of Henry VIII, Eliza- 
beth, and Henrietta Maria. But most frequently of all was 
chosen the life of the Queen of Scots. 

From fifteen or sixteen French biographies of the roman- 
tic Mary 3 Mrs. Haywood drew materials for an English 
work of two hundred and forty pages. "Mary Stuart, 
Queen of Scots : Being the Secret History of her Life, and 
the Real Causes of all Her Misfortunes. Containing a Rela- 
tion of many particular Transactions in her Reign ; never 
yet Published in any Collection" (1725) is distinguishable 
from her true fiction only by the larger proportion of events 
between . set scenes of burning passion which formed the 
chief constituent of Eliza's romances. As history it is 
worthless, and its significance as fiction lies merely in its 
attempt to incorporate imaginative love scenes with historical 
fact. It was apparently compiled hastily to compete with 
a rival volume, "The History of the Life and Reign of 
Mary Stuart," published a week earlier, and it enjoyed but 
a languid sale. Early in 1726 it passed into a second edi- 
tion, which continued to be advertised as late as .1743. 

"Mary Stuart" is the only one of Mrs. Haywood's ro- 
mances that strictly deserves the name of secret history. 
But late in 1749 a little romance that satisfied nearly all 
the conditions of the type insinuated itself into the pam- 
phlet shops without the agency of any publisher. "A Let- 
ter from H G g, Esq. One of the Gentlemen of 

the Bedchamber to the Young Chevalier, and the only Per- 
son of his own Retinue that attended him from Avignon, 

3 B.M. Catalogue. 



98 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

in his late Journey through Germany, and elsewhere ; Con- 
taining Many remarkable and affecting Occurrences which 
happened to the P during the course of his mys- 
terious Progress" has been assigned to Mrs. Haywood by 
the late Mr. Andrew Lang, 4 perhaps on the authority of 
the notice in the "Monthly Review" already quoted. 

The pretended author of the letter was a certain Henry 
Goring, a gentleman known to be in attendance upon the 
last of the Stuarts. The preface gives a commonplace ex- 
planation of how the letter fell into the hands of the editor 
through a similarity of names. Apparently the pamphlet 
was thought seditious because it eulogized the Young Chev- 
alier, hinting how advantageous it would be to have him on 
the throne. As the secret journey progresses, the Prince 
has a chance to expose his admirable political tenets in 
conversation with a nobleman of exalted rank; in rescuing 
a young woman from a fire, caring for her in distress, and 
refusing to take advantage of her passion for him, he gives 
evidence of a morality not accorded him by history and 
proves "how fit he is to govern others, who knows so well 
how to govern himself"; and when assaulted by hired 
assassins, he manifests courage and coolness, killing one 
of the bravos with his own hand. It is unnecessary to 
review the various stages in the Pretender's travels, which 
are related with a great air of mystery, but amount to noth- 
ing. The upshot is that the Prince has not renounced all 
thoughts of filling the throne of his ancestors, but has ends 
in view which the world knows nothing of and which will 
surprise them all some day. Had the Prince shown himself 
more susceptible to the charms of the merchants' daughters 
who fell in his way, this bit of romancing might claim the 
doubtful distinction of being Mrs. Haywood's only original 

4 A. Lang, History of English Literature (1912), 458. See ante, p. 
25. 



SECRET HISTORIES AND SCANDAL NOVELS 99 

secret history, but as it stands, no part of the story has the 
necessary motivation by passion. The intrigue is entirely 
political. 

There would seem to be little dangerous stuff in this per- 
formance even five years after the insurrection of 1745, but 
if as the "Monthly Review" ill-naturedly hints, Eliza Hay- 
wood really suffered for her supposed connection with it, the 
lesson was at any rate effectual, for the small references to 

the P occasionally noticeable in her previous works 

suddenly ceased, and thereafter the novelist scrupulously 
refrained from mingling fiction and politics. Previously, 
however, she had at least once attempted to write a political 
satire elaborately disguised as a romance. In July, 1736, 
according to the list of books in the "Gentleman's Maga- 
zine," numerous duodecimo volumes emanated from the 
shop of S. Baker and were sold under the title of ' ' Adven- 
tures of Eovaai, Princess of Ijaveo. A Pre-Adamitical 
History. Interspersed with a great Number of remarkable 
Occurrences, which happened, and may again happen, to 
several Empires, Kingdoms, Republicks, and particular 
Great Men. . . Written originally in the Language of 
Nature, (of later Years but little understood.) First trans- 
lated into Chinese . . . and now retranslated into English, 
by the Son of a Mandarin, residing in London. ' ' 5 

After the introduction has given a fantastic account of 
the Pre-Adamitical world, and explained with elaborate 
unconvincingness how the manuscript of the book came into 
existence, the tale commences like a moral allegory, but soon 
lapses into mere extravagant adventure. Capable at all 
times of using a deus ex machina as the readiest way of 
solving a situation, Mrs. Haywood here makes immoderate 
use of magic elements. 

s Re-issued as The Unfortunate Princess, or, the Ambitious States- 
man, 1741. 



100 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Eojaeu, King of Ijaveo, leaves to his daughter, Eovaai, a pre- 
cious jewel, upon the keeping of which her happiness depends. 
One day as she is gazing at it in the garden, it slips from its 
setting and is carried away by a little bird. Immediately the 
princess is forsaken by her quarreling subjects and abandoned by 
her suitors, save only the wicked Ochihatou, prime minister of 
the neighboring kingdom of Hypotofa, who has gained ascendancy 
over his sovereign by black magic, caused the promising young 
prince to be banished, and used his power to promote his ambi- 
tions and lusts. By infernal agencies he conveys Eovaai to the 
Hypotofan court, where he corrupts her mind and is about to 
triumph in her charms when he is summoned to quell a political 
disturbance. The princess, left languishing in a bower, is saved 
by her good Genius, who enables her to discern the true deformity 
of her betrayer and to escape to the castle of the good Alhahuza, 
and ultimately into the kingdom of Oozoff, where Ochihatou's 
magic has no power over her. During her stay there she listens 
to much political theorizing of a republican trend. Ochihatou 
succeeds in kidnapping her, and she is only saved from his loathed 
embraces by discovering one of his former mistresses in the form 
of a monkey whom she manages to change back into human shape 
and substitutes in her stead. While the statesman is employed as 
a lover, the populace led by Alhahuza stonn the palace. Ochi- 
hatou discovers the trick that has been played upon him, hastily 
transforms his unlucky mistress into a rat, and conveys himself 
and Eovaai through the air into a kingdom near at hand, where 
he hopes to make head against the rebels. His pretensions are 
encouraged, but learning by his magic that the Hypotofan mon- 
arch has been freed from the power of his spells, he persuades 
the princess to return to Ijaveo with him in hopes of regaining 
her kingdom. He transforms her into a dove, himself into a 
vulture, and flies with her to a wood near the Ijavean court. 
There he restores their natural shapes and makes a base attack 
upon her honor. In the struggle she manages to break his wand, 
and he in a fury hangs her up by the hair and is about to scourge 
her to death, when she is rescued by a glorious young stranger. 
The wicked Ochihatou dashes his brains out against an oak. Her 



SECRET HISTORIES AND SCANDAL NOVELS 101 

deliverer turns out to be the banished prince of Hypotofa, who 
restores to her the lost jewel, weds her, and prosperously governs 
their united realms. 

The fantastic story, however, was probably little calculated 
to sell the book. It was addressed to those who could read 
between the lines well enough to discern particular per- 
sonages in the characters of the fiction, and especially a 
certain great man in the figure of the evil prime minister. 
In 1736 when Eliza's novel first appeared, Walpole's 
defeated Excise Bill of 1733-4 and his policy of non-inter- 
ference on the Continent had made him cordially disliked 
by the people, and by 1741 his unpopular ministry, like 
Lady Mary Montagu's stairs, was " in a declining way." 
Sir Robert had never shown himself a friend to letters, and 
there were not a few writers, among them one so illustrious 
as Henry Fielding, who were ready to seize upon any pre- 
text for attacking him. G There can be no doubt that in the 
character of the villainous, corrupt, greedy, vain, lascivious, 
but plausible Ochihatou Mrs. Haywood intended her read- 
ers to recognize a semblance of the English minister. ' ' Of 
all the statesmen who have held high office, it would be 
impossible to find one who has been more systematically 
abused and more unjustly treated than Sir Robert Wal- 
pole. ... He is the 'Father of Parliamentary Corruption,' 
the 'foe to English liberty,' the 'man who maintained his 
power by the basest and most venal tactics'. . . . When- 
ever his administration is alluded to in Parliament a shud- 

e J. E. Wells, Fielding's Political Purpose in Jonathan Wilde, 
PMLA, XXVIII, No. 1, pp. 1-55. March, 1913. See also The Secret 
History of Mama Oello, 1733. "The Curaca Robilda's Character 
[i. e. Sir Robert Walpole's] will inform you that there were Evil 
Ministers even amongst the simple Indians" . . . and The States- 
man's Progress: Or, Memoirs of the Life, Administration, and Fall 
of Houly Chan, Primier Minister to Abensader, Emperor of China 
(1733). 



102 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

der runs through the House ... at the very thought that 
one so sordid, so interested, so schemingly selfish, should 
have attained to the position of Prime Minister, and have 
commanded a following. If we read the pamphlet litera- 
ture of the eighteenth century, we see Walpole represented 
as the meanest and most corrupt of mankind." 7 Lord 
Chesterfield says of him: "His prevailing weakness was to 
be thought to have a polite and happy turn to gallantry, 
of which he had undoubtedly less than any man living; it 
was his favorite and frequent subject of conversation, 
which proved, to those who had any penetration, that it 
was his prevailing weakness, and they applied to it with 
success" 8 And Lord Hervey reports that the Queen re- 
marked of Walpole 's mistress, ' ' dear Molly Skerritt ' ' : 
"She must be a clever gentlewoman to have made him be- 
lieve she cares for him on any other score [but his money] ; 
and to show you what fools we all are in some point or 
other, she has certainly told him some fine story or other of 
her love and her passion, and that poor man — avec ce gros 
corps, ces jambes en flees, et ce vilain ventre — believes her. 
Ah ! what is human nature ! ' ' 9 

With this sketch of Walpole compare the account of 
Ochihatou, Prime Minister of Hypotof a. ' ' This great Man 
was born of a mean Extraction, and so deformed in his own 
Person, that not even his own Parents cou'd look on him 
with Satisfaction. ... As he was extremely amorous, and 
had so little in him to inspire the tender Passion, the first 
Proof he gave of his Art, was to . . . cast such a Delusion 
before the Eyes of all who saw him, that he appeared to 
them such as he wished to be, a most comely and graceful 
Man. 

7 A. C. Ewald, Sir Bobert Walpole (1878), 444. 

s A. C. Ewald, Sir Bobert Walpole, 450. 

9 Lord Hervey 's Memoirs, London, 1884, II, 143. 



SECRET HISTORIES AND SCANDAL NOVELS 103 

"With this Advantage, join'd to the most soothing and 
insinuating Behaviour, he came to Court, and, by his Arti- 
fices, so wound himself into the Favour of some great Offi- 
cers, that he was not long without being put into a consid- 
erable Post. This he discharged so well, that he was soon 
promoted to a better, and at length to those of the highest 
Trust and Honour in the Kingdom. But that which was 
most remarkable in him, and very much contributed to 
endear him to all Sorts of People, was that his Elevation 
did not seem to have made the least Change in his Senti- 
ments. His natural Pride, his Lust, his exorbitant Ambi- 
tion, were disguised under the Appearance of Sweetness of 
Disposition, Chastity, and even more Condescension, than 
was consistent with the Rank he then possest. By this Be- 
haviour, he render 'd himself so far from exciting Envy, 
that those, by whose Recommendation he had obtained what 
he enjoy 'd, and with some of whom he was now on more 
than an Equality, wish'd rather to see an Augmentation, 
than Diminution of a Power he so well knew to use ; and so 
successful was his Hypocrisy, that the most Discerning 
saw not into his Designs, till he found means to accomplish 
them, to the almost total Ruin of both King and People." 10 
Ochihatou worms his way into the favor of the king, and 
after gaining complete ascendancy over his royal master, 
uses the power for his own ends. He fills the positions at 
court with wretches subservient to his own interests. ' ' He 
next proceeded to seize the publick Treasure into his own 
Hands, which he converted not to Works of Justice or 
Charity, or any Uses for the Honour of the Kingdom, but 
in building stately Palaces for himself, his Wives, and Con- 
cubines, and enriching his mean Family, and others who 
adhered to him, and assisted in his Enterprizes. " Lest this 
reference should not be plain enough in its application to 
10 The Unfortunate Princess, 18, etc. 



104 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

"Walpole's extravagances at Houghton, Mrs. Haywood adds 
in a footnote, "Our Author might have saved himself the 
Trouble of particularizing in what manner Ochihatou ap- 
ply 'd the Nation's Money; since he had said enough in 
saying, he was a Prime Minister, to make the Reader ac- 
quainted with his Conduct in that Point." Further allu- 
sions to a standing army of mercenaries and to an odious 
tribe of tax-collectors — two of the most popular grievances 
against Walpole — give additional force to the satire. There 
is a suspicion that in the character of the young prince 
banished by Ochihatou readers of a right turn of mind were 
intended to perceive a cautious allusion to the Pretender. 

That Walpole not only perceived, but actively resented 
the affront, we may infer, though evidence is lacking, from 
the six years of silence that followed the publication of the 
satire. Perhaps the government saw fit to buy off the 
troublesome author by a small appointment, but such indul- 
gent measures were not usually applied to similar cases. 
More probably Eliza found it wise to seek in France or some 
neighboring country the safety from the malignant power 
of the Prime Minister that her heroine sought in the king- 
dom of Oozoff. 

The "Adventures of Eovaai" contains almost the last 
of the dedications written in a servile tone to a patron whose 
favor Mrs. Haywood hoped to curry. Henceforward she 
was to be more truly a woman of letters in that her books 
appealed ostensibly at least only to the reading public. 
The victim of her final eulogy was the redoubtable Sarah, 
Duchess Dowager of Marlborough, who, when finding her- 
self addressed as "0 most illustrious Wife, and Parent of 
the Greatest, Best, and Loveliest! it was not sufficient for 
you to adorn Posterity with the Amiableness of every Vir- 
tue," etc., etc., may perhaps have recalled how her shining 
character had been blackened some twelve years before in a 



SECRET HISTORIES AND SCANDAL NOVELS 105 

licentious volume called "Memoirs of a Certain Island ad- 
jacent to the Kingdom of Utopia." 11 Had her Grace been 
aware that the reputed author of that comprehensive lam- 
poon was none other than the woman who now outdid her- 
self in praise, Eliza Haywood would probably have profited 
little by her panegyric. For though the "Memoirs of a 
Certain Island" like the "Adventures of Eovaai" made 
a pretence of being translated into English from the work 
of a celebrated Utopian author, the British public found 
no difficulty in attributing it by popular acclaim to Mrs. 
Haywood, and she reaped immense notoriety from it. In 
prefaces to some of her subsequent works she complained 
of the readiness of the world to pick meanings in whatever 
was published by a struggling woman, or protested that 
she had no persons or families in view in writing her stories, 
but she never disclaimed the authorship of this production. 
Undoubtedly the world was right in "smoking" the writer. 12 
If before she had retailed secret histories of late amours 
singly, Mrs. Haywood dealt in them now by the wholesale, 
and any reader curious to know the identity of the person- 
ages hidden under such fictitious names as Romanus, Beau- 
june, Orainos, Davilla, Flirtillaria, or Saloida could obtain 
the information by consulting a convenient "key" affixed 
to each of the two volumes. In this respect, as in the gen- 
eral scheme of her work, Mrs. Haywood was following the 
model set by the celebrated Mrs. Manley in her "New 

11 Memoirs of a Certain Island, II, 249. ' ' Marama [the Duchess 
of Marlborough] has been for many Years a Grandmother; but Age 
is the smallest of her Imperfections: — She is of a Disposition so per- 
verse and peevish, so designing, mercenary, proud, cruel, and re- 
vengeful, that it has been a matter of debate, if she were really 
Woman, or if some Fiend had not assumed that Shape on purpose 
to affront the Sex, and fright Mankind from Marriage." 

12 J. Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, III, 649, records the tradition 
that Chapman was the publisher of Mrs. Haywood's Utopia. 



106 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Atalantis. " She in turn had derived her method from the 
French romans a clef or romances in which contemporary 
scandal was reported in a fictitious disguise. The imitation 
written by Mrs. Haywood became only less notorious than 
her original, and was still well enough known in 1760 to be 
included in the convenient list of novels prefixed to the 
elder Column's "Polly Honeycombe. " It consists of a tis- 
sue of anecdotes which, if retold, would (in Fuller's words) 
' ' stain through the cleanest language I can wrap them in, ' ' 
all set in an allegorical framework of a commonplace kind. 

A noble youth arrives upon the shores of a happy island [Eng- 
land], where he encounters the God of Love, who conveys him to 
a spacious court in the midst of the city. There Pecunia and 
Fortuna, served by their high priest Lucitario [J. Craggs, the 
elder] preside over an Enchanted Well [South Sea Company] 
while all degrees of humanity stand about in expectation of some 
wonderful event. Fi*om amid the throng the God of Love selects 
certain persons as examples of perverted love. The stories he 
relates about them range from mere anecdotes to elaborate his- 
tories containing several love-letters. In substance these tales 
consist of the grossest scandal that could be collected from the 
gossip of profligate society. After hearing more than a satiety 
of these illustrations, the youth beholds the Genius of the Isle, 
supported by Astrea and Reason, exposing the fraud of the En- 
chanted Well to the dismay of the gi'eedy rabble. The young 
stranger then sinks to rest in a perfumed bower, while the God 
of Love and the Genius of the Isle set about a much needed refor- 
mation of manners. 

None of the skimmings of contemporary gossip poured 
out in the two volumes deserves the least consideration, save 
such as reveal the fair writer's relations with other authors. 
In return for Savage's eulogy of her "Love in Excess" 
and "Rash Resolve" the scribbling dame included in her 
scandal novel the story of his noble parentage substantially 
as it had already been told by Aaron Hill in the "Plain 



SECRET HISTORIES AND SCANDAL NOVELS 107 

Dealer" for 24 June, 1724. But in addition she prefaced 
the account with a highly colored narrative of the amours 
of Masonia and Riverius. 13 However much the author of 
"The Bastard" may have desired to prove his noble origin, 
he might easily have resented a too open flaunting of his 
mother's disgrace. Moreover, Mrs. Haywood hinted that 
his unfeeling mother was not the only woman whom the 
poet had to fear. By the insinuations of a female fury, a 
pretender to the art of poetry, for whom Eliza has no words 
too black — in fact some of her epithets are too shady to be 
quoted — he has been led into actions, mean, unjust, and 
wicked. The vile woman, it seems, has been guilty of de- 
faming the reputations of others. 

" The Monster whose Soul is wholly compos'd of Hipocrisy, 
Envy, and Lust, can ill endure another Woman should be es- 
teem'd Mistress of those Virtues she has acted with too barefaced 
an Impudence to pretend to, and is never so happy as when by 
some horrid Stratagem she finds the means to traduce and blast 
the Character of the Worthy. . . . With how much readiness the 
easily deceiv'd Riverius [Savage] has obliged her in spreading 
those Reports, coin'd in the hellish Mint of her own Brain, I am 
sorry to say. ... It cannot be doubted but that he has lost many 
Friends on her account, in particular one there was who bore him 
a singular Respect, tho' no otherways capacitated to serve him 
than by good Wishes. — This Person receiv'd a more than common 
Injury from him, thro' the Instigations of that female Fury; but 
yet continuing to acknowledge his good Qualities, and pitying his 
falling into the contrary, took no other Revenge than writing a 
little Satire, which his having publish'd some admirable fine things 
in the praise of Friendship and Honour, gave a handsome oppor- 
tunity for." (Vol. I, p. 184.) 

From the exceptional animus displayed by Eliza Haywood 
in describing her colleague in the school for scandal, one 

is Anne Mason, formerly Lady Macclesfield, and the Earl of Rivers, 
whom Savage claimed as his father. 



108 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

may suspect that the lightning had struck fairly near 
home. One is almost forced to believe that Savage's well- 
wisher, the writer of the little satire, "To the Ingenious 
Riverius, on his writing in the Praise of Friendship," was 
none other than Eliza herself. 14 Exactly what injury she 
had sustained from him and his Siren is not known, but 
although he still stood high in her esteem, she was impla- 
cable against that "worse than Lais" whom in a long and 
pungent description she satirized under the name of Gloa- 
titia. 

" Behold another ... in every thing as ridiculous, in some more 
vile — that big-bone'd, buxom, brown Woman. ... Of all the Gods 
there is none she acknowledges but Phoebus, him she frequently 
implores for assistance, to charm her Lovers with the Spirit of 
Poetry. . . . She pretends, however, to have an intimate acquaint- 
ance with the Muses — has judgment enough to know that ease and 
please make a Rhyme, and to count ten Syllables on her Fingers. 
— This is the Stock with which she sets up for a Wit, and among 
some ignorant Wretches passes for such; but with People of true 
Understanding, nothing affords more subject of ridicule, than that 
incoherent Stuff which she calls Verses. — She bribed, with all the 
Favours she is capable of conferring, a Bookseller [Curll] (famous 
for publishing soft things) to print some of her Works, [" The 
Amours of Clio and Strephon," 1719] on which she is not a little 
vain: tho' she might very well have spared herself the trouble. 
Few Men, of any rank whatsoever, but have been honour'd with 
the receipt of some of her Letters both in Prose and Measure — few 
Coffee-Houses but have been the Repository of them." 15 

The student of contemporary secret history does not need 
to refer to the "key" to discover that the woman whose 
power to charm Savage was so destructive to Eliza's peace 

I* She had a way of rechristening her friends by romantic titles. 
See her poem, "To Mr. Walter Bowman . . . Occasion 'd by his ob- 
jecting against my giving the Name of Hillarius to Aaron Hill, Esq." 

is Memoirs of a Certain Island, I, 43-7 condensed. 



SECRET HISTORIES AND SCANDAL NOVELS 109 

of mind was that universal mistress of minor poets, the Mira 
of Thomson, the Clio of Dyer and Hill, the famous Martha 
Fowke, who at the time happened to have fixed the scandal 
of her affections upon the Volunteer Laureate. 10 That the 
poet's opinion of her remained unchanged by Mrs. Hay- 
wood's vituperation may be inferred from some lines in her 
praise in a satire called ''The Authors of the Town," 
printed soon after the publication of "Memoirs of a Cer- 
tain Island." 17 

"Clio, descending Angels sweep thy Lyre, 
Prompt thy soft Lays, and breathe Seraphic Fire. 
Tears fall, Sighs rise, obedient to thy Strains, 
And the Blood dances in the mazy Veins! .... 
In social Spirits, lead thy Hours along, 
Thou Life of Loveliness, thou Soul of Song! " 

But not content with singing the praises of her rival, 
Savage cast a slur upon Mrs. Haywood's works and even 
upon the unfortunate dame herself. 

' ' First, let me view what noxious Nonsense reigns, 
While yet I loiter on Prosaic Plains; 
If Pens impartial active Annals trace, 
Others, with secret Histr'y, Truth deface: 
Views and Reviews, and wild Memoirs appear, 
And Slander darkens each recorded year." 

After relating at some length the typical absurdities of 
the chronique scandaleuse — deaths by poison, the inevitably 

16 For an account of Clio see an article by Bolton Corney, ' ' James 
Thomson and David Mallet," Athenaeum, II, 78, 1859. And Miss 
Dorothy Brewster, Aaron Hill, 188. Her unsavory biography entitled 
Clio, or a Secret History of the Amours of Mrs. S-n — m, was still 
known at the time of Polly Honey combe, 1760. 

w The Authors of the Town ; a Satire. Inscribed to the Author 
of the Universal Passion. For J. Boberts, 1725. A number of 
lines from this poem appear later in Savage's "On False His- 
torians," Poems (Cooke's ed.), II, 189. 



110 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

dropped letter, and intrigues of passion and jealousy — he 
became more specific in describing various authors. Among 
others 

"A cast-off Dame, who of Intrigues can judge, 
Writes Scandal in Romance — A Printer's Drudge! 
Flush 'd with Success, for Stage-Renown she pants, 
And melts, and swells, and pens luxurious Rants." 

The first two lines might apply to the notorious Mrs. Man- 
ley, lately deceased, who had for some time been living as 
a hack writer for Alderman Barber, but she had written no 
plays since "Lucius" in 1717. Mrs. Haywood, however, 
equally a cast-off dame and a printer's drudge, had recently 
produced her "Fair Captive," a most luxurious rant. The 
passage, then, may probably refer to her. 

If, as is possible, the poem was circulated in manuscript 
before its publication, this intended insult may be the in- 
jury complained of by Mrs. Haywood in "Memoirs of a 
Certain Island. ' ' Though she was content to retaliate only 
by heaping coals of fire upon the poet's bays, and though 
she even heightens the pathos of his story by relating how 
he had refused the moiety of a small pension from his 
mother upon hearing that she had suffered losses in the 
collapse of the South Sea scheme, Savage remained hence- 
forth her implacable enemy. Perhaps her abuse of the 
divine Clio, the suspected instigator of his attacks upon her, 
may have been an unforgivable offense. 

No need to particularize further. We need not vex the 
shade of Addison by repeating what Eliza records of his 
wild kinsman, Eustace Budgell (Bellario). No other per- 
son of literary note save Aaron Hill, favorably mentioned 
as Lauranus, appears in all the dreary two volumes. The 
vogue of the book was not due to its merits as fiction, which 
are slight, but to the spiciness of personal allusions. That 
such reading was appreciated even in the highest circles is 



SECRET HISTORIES AND SCANDAL NOVELS 111 

shown by young Lady Mary Pierrepont's defence of Mrs. 
Manley's "New Atalantis." 18 In the history of the novel, 
however, the roman a clef deserves perhaps more recogni- 
tion than has hitherto been accorded it. Specific delinea- 
tion was necessary to make effective the satire, and though 
the presence of the "key" made broad caricature possible, 
since each picture was labeled, yet the writers of scandal 
novels usually drew their portraits with an amount of detail 
foreign to the method of the romancers. 19 While the tale 
of passion developed the novelist's power to make the emo- 
tions seem convincing, the chronique scandaleuse empha- 
sized the necessity of accurate observation of real men and 
women. But satire and libel, though necessitating detailed 
description, did not, like burlesque or parody, lead to the 
creation of character. In that respect the "Memoirs of a 
Certain Island" and all its tribe are notably deficient. 

A less comprehensive survey of current tittle-tattle, per- 
haps modeled on Mrs. Manley's "Court Intrigues" (1711), 
stole forth anonymously on 16 October, 1724, under the 
caption, "Bath-Intrigues: in four Letters to a Friend in 
London," a title which sufficiently indicates the nature of 
the work. Like the "Memoirs of a Certain Island" these 
letters consist of mere jottings of scandal. Most probably 
both productions were from the same pen, though "Bath- 
Intrigues" has been attributed to Mrs. Manley. 20 Opposite 

is Letters from the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Everyman edi- 
tion, 4. 

is Compare the picture of Gloatitia, for instance, with the follow- 
ing of a lady in La Belle Assemblee, I, 22. ' f To form any Idea of 
what she was, one must imagine all that can be conceived of Perfec- 
tion — the most blooming Youth, the most delicate Complection, Eyes 
that had in them all the Fire of Wit, and Tenderness of Love, 
a Shape easy, and fine proportion 'd Limbs; and to all this, a thou- 
sand unutterable Graces accompanying every Air and little Motion. ' ' 

20 Miss C. E. Morgan, The Novel of Manners, 221. Bath-Intrigues 
was included in Mrs. Haywood's Works, 1727. Another work con- 



112 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

the title-page Roberts, the publisher, advertised ' ' The Mas- 
queraders," "The Fatal Secret," and "The Surprise" as 
by the same author. One of Mrs. Haywood's favorite quo- 
tations, used by her later as a motto for the third volume 
of "The Female Spectator," stands with naive appropri- 
ateness on the title-page : 

"There is a Lust in Man, no Awe can tame, 
Of loudly publishing his Neighbor 's Shame. ' ' 

The writer of "Bath-Intrigues," moreover, did not hesi- 
tate to recommend Eliza's earlier novels to the good graces 
of scandal-loving readers, for she describes a certain letter 
as "amorous as Mrs. F d's Eyes, or the Writ- 
ings of the Author of Love in Excess." Most curious of 
all is the fact that the composer of the four letters, who 
signs herself J.B., refers en passant to Belinda's inconstancy 
to Sir Thomas Worthly, an allusion to the story of the 
second part of "The British Recluse." This reference 
would indicate either that there was some basis of actuality 
in the earlier fiction, or that Mrs. Haywood was using 
imaginary scandal to pad her collection. However that 
may be, this second chronique scandaleuse was apparently 
no less successful, though less renowned, than the first, for 
a third edition was imprinted during the following March. 
The scribbling dame again used the feigned letter as a 
vehicle for mildly infamous gossip in "Letters from the 
Palace of Fame. "Written by a First Minister in the Re- 
gions of Air, to an Inhabitant of this World. Translated 

tained in the same two volumes, The Perplex'd Duchess; or, Treach- 
ery Rewarded: Being some Memoirs of the Court of Malfy. In a 
Letter from a Sicilian Nobleman, who had his Residence there, to 
his Friend in. London (1728), may be a scandal novel, though the 
title suggests a reworking of Webster's Duchess of Malfi. I have 
not seen the book. 



SECRET HISTORIES AND SCANDAL NOVELS 113 

from an Arabian Manuscript." 21 Its pretended source and 
the sham Oriental disguise make the work an unworthy 
member of that group of feigned Oriental letters begun by 
G. P. Marana with "L'Espion turc" in 1684, continued by 
Dufresny and his imitator, T. Brown, raised to a philo- 
sophic level by Addison and Steele, and finally culminant 
in Montesquieu's "Lettres Persanes" (1721) and Gold- 
smith's "Citizen of the World" (1760). 22 The fourth 
letter is a well-told Eastern adventure, dealing with the 
revenge of Forzio who seduces the wife of his enemy, Ben- 
hamar, through the agency of a Christian slave, but in gen- 
eral the "Letters" are valuable only as they add an atom 
of evidence to the popularity of pseudo-Oriental material. 
Eliza Haywood was anxious to give the public what it 
wanted. She had found a ready market for scandal, and 
knew that the piquancy of slander was enhanced and the 
writer protected from disagreeable consequences if her 
stories were cast in some sort of a disguise. She had 
already used the obvious ruse of an allegory in the "Mem- 
oirs of a Certain Island" and had just completed a 
feigned history in the "Court of Carimania." The well 
known "Turkish Spy" and its imitations, or perhaps the 
recent but untranslated "Lettres Persanes," may have 
suggested to her the possibility of combining bits of gossip 
in letters purporting to be translated from the Arabic and 
written by some supermundane being. The latter part of 
the device had already been used by Defoe in "The Con- 
solidator." Mrs. Haywood merely added the suggestion of 
a mysterious Oriental source. She makes no attempt to 

21 Ascribed to Mrs. Haywood in the advertisements of her addi- 
tional Works, 1727. The B. M. copy, catalogued under "Ariel," con- 
tains only a fragment of 24 pages. 

22 Miss M. P. Conant, The Oriental Tale in England tn the Eigh- 
teenth Century (1908), passim. 



1 14 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

satirize contemporary society, but is content to retail vague 
bits of town talk to customers who might be deluded into 
imagining them of importance. "The new created Vizier," 
the airy correspondent reports, "might have succeeded bet- 
ter in another Post, than in this, which with so much 
earnestness he has sollicited. For, notwithstanding the 
Plaudits he has received from our Princess, and the natural 
Propensity to State-Affairs, given him by his Saturnine 
Genius; his Significator Mars promis'd him greater Hon- 
ours in the Field, than he can possibly attain to in the 
Cabinet." And so on. Both "Bath-Intrigues" and "Let- 
ters from the Palace of Fame ' ' may be classed as romans a 
clef although no "key" for either has yet been found. In 
all other respects they conform to type. 

The only one of Mrs. Haywood's scandal novels that 
rivaled the fame of her "Memoirs of a Certain Island" was 
the notorious "Secret History of the Present Intrigues of 
the Court of Carimania" (1727), a feigned history on a 
more coherent plan than the allegorical hodge-podge of the 
former compilation. The incidents in this book are all 
loosely connected with the amours of Theodore, Prince of 
Carimania, with various beauties of this court. The chronicle 
minutely records the means he employed to overcome their 
scruples, to stifle their jealousies and their reproaches, and 
finally to extricate himself from affairs of gallantry grown 
tedious. Nearly all the changes are rung on the theme of 
amorous adventure in describing the progress of the royal 
rake and his associates. The "key" 23 at the end identifies 
the characters with various noble personages at the court 
of George II when Prince of Wales. The melting Lutetia, 

23 The ' ' key ' ' is almost the sole contribution to Mrs. Haywood 's 
bibliography in Bonn's Lowndes. Most of the personages mentioned 
are described in the notes of John Wilson Croker's Letters to and 

from the Countess of Suffolk (1824). 



SECRET HISTORIES AND SCANDAL NOVELS 115 

for instance, represented "Mrs. Baladin" or more accu- 
rately Mary Bellenden, maid of honor to the Princess, to 
whose charms Prince George was in fact not insensible. 
Barsina and Arilla were also maids of honor: the former 
became the second wife of John, Duke of Argyle (Ari- 
danor), while the latter was that sister of Sir Sidney 
Meadows celebrated by Pope for her prudence. Although 
the "key" discreetly refrained from identifying the 
amorous Theodore, no great penetration was necessary to 
see in his character a picture of the royal George himself. 
A tradition not well authenticated but extremely probable 
states that printer and publisher were taken up in conse- 
quence of this daring scandal. 

But more important in its effect upon the author's for- 
tunes than any action of the outraged government was the 
resentment which her defamation of certain illustrious per- 
sons awakened in the breast of the dictator of letters. In 
chosing to expose in the character of her chief heroine, 
Ismonda, the foibles of Mrs. Henrietta Howard, the neigh- 
bor of Pope, the friend of Swift and Arbuthnot, and the 
admired of Lord Peterborough, Mrs. Haywood made her- 
self offensive in the nostrils of the literary trio. The King 's 
mistress, later the Countess of Suffolk, conducted herself 
with such propriety that her friends affected to believe that 
her relations with her royal lover were purely platonic, and 
they naturally failed to welcome the chronicle of her amours 
and the revelation of the slights which George II delighted 
to inflict upon her. Swift described the writer of the scan- 
dal as a "stupid, infamous, scribbling woman"; 24 Peter- 

24 The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift, ed. by F. Elrington Ball 
(1913), Vol. IV, 264, 266. The Countess of Suffolk, in a playful at- 
tack on Swift, wrote (25 Sept. 1731) ... "I should not have de- 
spaired, that . . . this Irish patriot . . . should have closed the 
scene under suspicions of having a violent passion for Mrs. Barber, 
and Lady M [Montagu] or Mrs. Haywood have writ the progress 



116 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

borough writing to Lady Mary Montagu in behalf of his 
friend, the English Homer, sneered at the "four remarkable 
poetesses and scribblers, Mrs. Centlivre, Mrs. Haywood, 
Mrs. Manley, and Mrs. Ben [sic]"; 25 and Pope himself 
pilloried the offender to all time in his greatest satire. 

of it." In reply Swift wrote (26 Oct. 1731) that he could not 

guess who was intended by Lady M and that he had heard Mrs. 

Haywood characterized in the terms quoted above. 
25 Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, III, 279. 



CHAPTER V 
THE HEROINE OF "THE DUNCIAD" 

Mr. Pope's devious efforts to make the gratification of 
his personal animosities seem due to public-spirited indigna- 
tion have been generally exposed. Beside the overwhelming 
desire to spite Theobald for his presumption in publishing 
"Shakespeare Restored" the aggrieved poet was actuated 
by numerous petty grudges against the inhabitants of Grub 
Street, all of which he masked behind a pretence of right- 
eous zeal. According to the official explanation "The 
Dunciad" was composed with the most laudable motive of 
damaging those writers of "abusive falsehoods and scur- 
rilities" who "had aspersed almost all the great characters 
of the age; and this with impunity, their own persons and 
•names being utterly secret and obscure." He intended to 
seize the "opportunity of doing some good, by detecting 
and dragging into light these common enemies of mankind ; 
since to invalidate this universal slander, it sufficed to show 
what contemptible men were the authors of it. He was not 
without hopes, that by manifesting the dulness of those who 
had only malice to recommend them, either the booksellers 
would not find their account in employing them, or the men 
themselves, when discovered, would want courage to proceed 
in so unlawful an occupation. This it was that gave birth to 
the 'Dunciad,' and he thought it a happiness, that by the late 
flood of slander on himself, he had acquired such a peculiar 
right over their names as was necessary to this design." 1 
But gentlemanly reproof and delicate satire would be wasted 
i Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, IV, 4. 
117 



118 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

on "libellers and common nuisances." They must be met 
upon their own ground and overwhelmed with filth. "Thus 
the politest men are obliged sometimes to swear when they 
have to do with porters and oyster- wenches. " Moreover, 
those unexceptionable models, Homer, Virgil, and Dryden 
had all admitted certain nasty expressions, and in com- 
parison with them "our author . . . tosses about his dung 
with an air of majesty." 2 In the episode devoted to the 
"authoress of those most scandalous books called the Court 
of Carimania, and the new Utopia," remarks the annotator 
of "The Dunciad, Variorum," "is exposed, in the most 
contemptuous manner, the profligate licentiousness of those 
shameless scribblers (for the most part of that sex, which 
ought least to be capable of such malice or impudence) 
who in libellous Memoirs and Novels, reveal the faults and 
misfortunes of both sexes, to the ruin of public fame, or 
disturbance of private happiness. Our good poet (by the 
whole cast of his work being obliged not to take oft' the 
irony) where he could not show his indignation, hath 
shewn his contempt, as much as possible ; having here 
drawn as vile a picture as could be represented in the 
colours of Epic poesy." 3 On these grounds Pope justified 
the coarseness of his allusions to Mrs. Thomas (Corinna) and 
Eliza Haywood. But a statement of high moral purpose 
from the author of "The Dunciad" was almost inevitably 
the stalking-horse of an unworthy action. Mr. Pope's 
reasons, real and professed, for giving Mrs. Haywood a 
particularly obnoxious place in his epic of dullness afford 
a curious illustration of his unmatched capacity ostensibly 
to chastise the vices of the age, while in fact hitting an 
opponent below the belt. 

The scourge of dunces had, as we have seen, a legitimate 

2 Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, IV, 135, note 3. 
s Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, IV, 141. 



THE HEROINE OF "THE DUNCIAD" 119 

cause to resent the licentious attack upon certain court 
ladies, especially his friend Mrs. Howard, in a scandalous 
fiction of which Eliza Haywood was the reputed author. 
Besides she had allied herself with Bond, Defoe, and other 
inelegant pretenders in the domain of letters, and was 
known to be the friend of Aaron Hill, Esq., who stood not 
high in Pope Alexander's good graces. And finally Pope 
may have honestly believed that she was responsible for a 
lampoon upon him in person. In "A List of Books, 
Papers, and Verses, in which our Author was Abused, Be- 
fore the Publication of the Dunciad ; with the True Names 
of the Authors," appended to "The Dunciad, Variorum" 
of 1729, Mrs. Haywood was credited with an anonymous 
"Memoirs of Lilliput, octavo, printed in 1727. " 4 The full 
title of the work in question reads, "Memoirs of the Court 
of Lilliput. Written by Captain Gulliver. Containing an 
Account of the Intrigues, and some other particular Trans- 
actions of that Nation, omitted in the two Volumes of his 
Travels. Published by Lucas Bennet, with a Preface, 
shewing how these Papers fell into his hands." The title, 
indeed, is suggestive of such productions as "The Court of 
Carimania." In the Preface Mr. Lucas Bennet describes 
himself as a schoolfellow and friend of Captain Gulliver, 
which is reason enough to make us doubt his own actuality. 
But whether a real personage or a pseudonym for some 
other author, he was probably not Mrs. Haywood, for the 
style of the book is unlike that of her known works, and the 
historian of Lilliput indulges in some mild sarcasms at the 
expense of women who "set up for Writers, before they 

4 Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, IV, 232. Professor Lounsbury has 
apparently confused this work with A Cursory View of the History 
of Lilliput For these last forty three Years, 8vo, 1727, a political 
satire containing no allusion to Pope. See The Text of Shakes- 
peare, 287. 



120 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

have well learned their Alphabet." Either before or after 
composing his lines on Eliza, however, Pope chose to at- 
tribute the volume to her. The passage which doubtless 
provoked his noble rage against shameless scribblers was 
part of a debate between Lilliputian Court ladies who were 
anxious lest their having been seen by Gulliver in a delicate 
situation should reflect on their reputations. The speaker 
undertakes to reassure her companions. 

" And besides, the inequality of our Stature rightly eonsider'd, 
ought to be for us as full a Security from Slander, as that be- 
tween Mr. P — pe, and those great Ladies who do nothing without 
him; admit him to their Closets, their Bed-sides, consult him in 
the choice of their Servents, their Garments, and make no scruple 
of putting them on or off before him : Every body knows they are 
Women of strict Virtue, and he a harmless Creature, who has 
neither the Will, nor Power of doing any farther Mischief than 
with his Pen, and that he seldom draws, but in defense of their 
Beauty ; or to second their Revenge against some presuming Prude, 
who boasts a Superiority of Charms: or in privately transcribing 
and passing for his own, the elaborate Studies of some more 
learned Genius." 5 

Such an attack upon the sensitive poet's person and 
pride did not go unnoticed. More than a year later he re- 
turned the slur with interest upon the head of the supposed 
author. The lines on Eliza, which still remain the coarsest 
in the satire, were in the original "Dunciad" even more 
brutal. 6 Nothing short of childish personal animus could 
account for the filthy malignity of Pope's revenge. 

"See in the circle next, Eliza plac'd; 
Two babes of love close clinging to her waste; 
Fair as before her works she stands confess 'd 

s Memoirs of the Court of Lilliput, 16. 

*The Dunciad. 1728. Book II, lines 137-^8, and 170; Book III, 
lines 149-53. 



THE HEROINE OF "THE DUNCIAD " 121 

In flow'r'd brocade by bounteous Eirlcall dress 'd, 
Pearls on her neck, and roses in her hair, 
And her fore-buttocks to the navel bare. "7 

The Goddess of Dullness offers "yon Juno of majestic size" 
as the chief prize in the booksellers' games. "Chetwood 
and Curll accept this glorious strife, ' ' the latter, as always, 
wins the obscene contest, "and the pleas 'd dame soft- 
smiling leads away." Nearly all of this account is impu- 
dent slander, but Mr. Pope's imputations may have had 
enough truth in them to sting. His description of Eliza is 
a savage caricature of her portrait by Kirkall prefixed to 
the first edition of her collected novels, plays, and poems 
(1724). 8 Curll 's "Key to the Dunciad," quoted with evi- 
dent relish by Pope in the Variorum notes, recorded on the 
authority of contemporary scandal that the "two babes of 
love" were the offspring of a poet 9 and a bookseller. This 
bit of libel meant no more than that Mrs. Haywood's rela- 
tions with Savage and other minor writers had been inju- 
diciously unconventional. As for the booksellers, Curll 
had not been professionally connected with the authoress 
before the publication of "The Dunciad," and the part he 
played in the games may be regarded as due entirely to 
Pope's malice. W. R. Chetwood was indeed the first pub- 
lisher of Eliza's effusions, but his name was even more 
strongly associated with the prize which actually fell to his 
lot. 10 In 1735 Chapman was substituted for Chetwood, and 
in the last revision Thomas Osborne, then the object of 
Pope's private antipathy, gained a permanent place as 

7 Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, IV, 282. 

s A second engraving by Vertue after Parmentier formed the 
frontispiece of Secret Histories, Novels, and Poems. 

9 E. Curll, Key to the Dunciad, 12. Some copies apparently read 
"peer" for "poet." See Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, IV, 330, 
note pp. ; and Sir Sidney Lee, article Haywood in the D.N.B. 

io Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, IV, 330, note ss. 



122 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Curll's opponent. Taken all in all, the chief virulence of 
the abuse was directed more against the booksellers than 
against Mrs. Haywood. 

The second mention of Eliza was also in connection with 
Corinna in a passage now canceled. 

"See next two slip-shod Muses traipse along, 
In lofty madness meditating song, 
With tresses staring from poetic dreams 
And never wash'd, but in Castalia's streams. 
H and T , glories of their race! "" 

The first initial is written in the manuscript "Hey wood," 
and the second was doubtless intended for Mrs. Thomas. 
But in this case the very catholicity of Pope's malice de- 
feated its own aim. Originally the first line stood: "See 

Pix and slip-shod W [Wortley?] traipse along." 

In 1729 the place of the abused Corinna was given to Mrs. 
Centlivre, then five years dead, in retaliation for a verse 
satire called "The Catholic Poet, or Protestant Barnaby's 
Sorrowful Lamentation: a Ballad about Homer's Iliad," 
(1715). 12 Evidently abuse equally applicable to any one 
or more of five women writers could not be either specific or 
strikingly personal. Nothing can be inferred from the 
lines except that Pope despised the whole race of female 
wits and bore particular malice against certain of their 
number. Eliza Haywood sustained the largest share of 
anathema, for not only was she vilified in the poem, but 
"Haywood's Novels" and the offensive "Court of Cari- 
mania" occupied a conspicuous position in the cargo of 
books carried by the "ass laden with authors" which formed 
the well-known vignette to the quarto edition of 1729. 

In the universal howl raised against the persecutor by. 
the afflicted dunces the treble part was but weakly sustained. 

n Elwin and Courthope's Pope, IV, 294. 

"El-win and Courthope's Pope, IV, 232. See also 159, note 1. 



THE HEROINE OF "THE DUNCIAD " 123 

Mrs. Thomas indeed produced a small sixpenny octavo, 
written for, and perhaps in conjunction with Curll, entitled 
"Codrus; or the Dunciad dissected. To which is added 
Farmer Pope and his Son" (1729), but Mrs. Haywood's 
contribution was probably on her part unintentional, and 
was due entirely to the activity of the same infamous book- 
seller, who was among the first to get his replies and counter- 
slanders into print. 13 The "Key to the Dunciad" already 
mentioned ran through three editions in competition with 
an authorized key. "The Popiad" and "The Curliad" 
were rapidly huddled together and placed upon the market. 
Close upon the heels of these publications came "The Fe- 
male Dunciad," containing beside the "Metamorphosis of 
P. into a Stinging Nettle" by Mr. Foxton, a novel called 
' ' Irish Artifice ; or, the History of Clarina ' ' by Mrs. Eliza 
Haywood. In a short introduction to the piece, Curll ex- 
plained how it happened to fall into his hands. 

"I am likewise to inform my Female Criticks, that they stand 
indebted to the entertaining Pen of Mrs. Eliza Haywood for the 
following History of Clarina. It was sent to me, by herself, on 
communicating to some of my Friends the Design I had of writing 
a Weekly Paper, under the title of the ROVER, the Scope of 
which is in some Measure explain'd in her Address to me, and 
this Project I may yet perhaps put in Execution." 

The novelette submitted to Curll for inclusion in his pro- 
jected periodical relates how an Irish housekeeper named 
Aglaura craftily promotes a runaway match between her 
son Merovius and the young heiress Clarina, who, deserted 
by her husband and disowned by her father, falls into the 

13 T. R. Lounsbury, The Text of Shakespeare, 281. ' ' < The Popiad ' 
which appeared in July, and 'The Female Dunciad' which followed 
the month after . . . were essentially miscellanies devoted to attacks 
upon the poet, and for them authors were not so much responsible 
as publishers." 



124 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

utmost misery. The story has no possible bearing either 
on Pope or on "The Dunciad," but was evidently seized 
by the shifty publisher as the nearest thing to hand when 
he came to patch up another pamphlet against Pope. 
Nothing could be more characteristic of Curll than his 
willingness to make capital out of his own disgrace. So 
hurried was the compilation of "The Female Dunciad" 
that he even printed the letter designed to introduce Mrs. 
Haywood 's tale to the readers of the ' ' Rover. ' ' Pope, who 
assiduously read all the libels directed against himself, 
hastened to use the writer's confession of her own short- 
comings in a note to "The Dunciad, Variorum" of 1729. 14 

Mrs. Haywood admires at some length the K over's intention of 
"laying a Foundation for a Fabriek, whose spacious Circum- 
ference shall at once display the beautiful Images of Virtue in 
in all her proper Shapes, and the Deformities of Vice in its various 
Appearances. . . . An Endeavour for a Reformation of Manners, 
(in an Age, where Folly is so much the Fashion, that to have run 
thro' all the courses of Debauchery, seem requisite to complete the 
fine Gentleman) is an Attempt as during as it is noble; and while 
it engages the Admiration and Applause of the worthy and judi- 
cious Few, will certainly draw on you the Ridicule and Hatred of 
that unnumbered Crowd, who justly dread the Lash of a Satire, 
which their own dissolute Behaviour has given sting to. But I, 
who am perfectly acquainted with the Sweetness of your Dispo- 
sition, and that Tenderness with which you consider the Errors of 
your Fellow Creatures, need not be inform'd, that while you ex- 
pose the Foulness of those Facts, which renders them deseiwedly 
Objects of Reproach, you will [not] forget to pity the Weakness 
of Humanity and Lethargy of Reason, which at some unguarded 
Hours, steals on the Souls of even the wisest Men; and tho' I 
shou'd find, in the Course of your Papers, all the little Inadver- 
tencies of my own Life recorded, I am sensible it will be done in 
such a Manner as I cannot but approve." 

i* Elwin and Courthope's Pope, TV, 141, note 5. 



THE HEROINE OF "THE DUNCIAD" 125 

No particular intimacy between the author and the book- 
seller can be inferred from this extravagant but conventional 
flattery. The interpretation of what Mrs. Haywood terms 
inadvertencies — a word almost invariably used in her writ- 
ings as a euphemism — is a more difficult problem, for defi- 
nite evidence of the authoress' gallantries is entirely lack- 
ing. But however damaging to herself her frankness may 
have been, there was little in the production to arouse the 
ire of Pope. The only instance in which the maligned 
novelist may have intended to show her resentment was in 
the Preface to her tragedy "Frederick, Duke of Brunswick- 
Lunenburgh" (1729) where with veiled sarcasm she con- 
fessed herself "below the Censure of the Gyant-Criticks of 
this Age." 

Although Mrs. Haywood was evidently not responsible 
for the inclusion of her tale in ' ' The Female Dunciad, ' ' and 
although the piece itself was entirely innocuous, her daring 
to raise her head even by accident brought down upon her 
another scurrilous rebuke, not this time from the poet him- 
self, but from her former admirer, Richard Savage. In 
"An Author to be Let" (1732) Pope's jackal directed 
against the members of a supposed club of dunces, presided 
over by James Moore-Smith and including Theobald, Wel- 
sted, Curll, Dennis, Cooke, and Bezaleel Morris, a tirade of 
abuse, in which "the divine Eliza" came in for her full 
share of vituperation. 

" When Mrs. Haywood ceas'd to be a Strolling Actress, why 
might not the Lady (tho' once a Theatrical Queen) have sub- 
sisted by turning Washer- woman ? Has not the Fall of Greatness 
been a frequent Distress in all Ages? She might have caught a 
beautiful Bubble as it arose from the Suds of her Tub, blown it 
in Air, seen it glitter, and then break! Even in this low Condi- 
tion, she had play'd with a Bubble, and what more, is the Vanity 
of human Greatness? She might also have consider'd the sullied 



126 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Linnen growing white in her pretty red Hands, as an Emblem of 
her Soul, were it well scoured by Repentance for the Sins of her 
Youth: But she rather chooses starving by writing Novels of In- 
trigue, to teach young Heiresses the Art of running away with 
Fortune-hunters, and scandalizing Persons of the highest Worth 
and Distinction." 

Savage's mention of eloping heiresses shows that he had 
been looking for exceptionable material in "Irish Artifice," 
but finding little to his purpose there, had reverted to the 
stock objections to the scandal novels, where he was upon 
safe but not original ground. In the body of the pamphlet 
he returned to assault the same breach. The supposed 
writer, Iscariot Hackney, in stating his qualifications for 
membership in the Dunces' Club, claims to be "very deeply 
read in all Pieces of Scandal, Obscenity, and Prophaneness, 
particularly in the Writings of Mrs. Haywood, Henley, 
Welsted, Morley, Foxton, Cooke, D'Foe, Norton, Woolston, 
Dennis, Nedward, Concanen, Journalist-Pit, and the Author 
of the Rival Modes. From these I propose to compile a 
very grand Work, which shall not be inferior to Utopia, 
Carimania, Gulliverania, Art of Flogging, Daily Journal, 
Epigrams on the Dunciad, or Oratory Transactions." . . . 
Although the author of "Utopia" and "Carimania" was 
pilloried in good company, she suffered more than she de- 
served. She was indeed a friend of Theobald's, for a copy 
of "The Dunciad: with Notes Variorum, and the Prolegom- 
ena of Scriblerus," bearing on the fly-leaf the following 
inscription : 

" Lewis Theobald to Mrs Heywood, as a testimony of his es- 
teem, presents this book called The Dunciad, and acquaints her 
that Mr. Pope, by the profits of its publication, saved his library, 
wherein impawned much learned lumber lay." 15 

is Notes and Queries, Ser. T, X, 110. The words italicized by me 
refer to Pope's description of Theobald's library, The Dunciad, 
(1728), Book I, line 106. 



THE HEROINE OF "THE DUNCIAD" 127 

shows that the two victims of Pope 's most bitter satire felt 
a sort of companionship in misfortune. But there is no 
eAndence to show that Eliza took any part in the War of 
the Dunces. 

But that the immortal infamy heaped upon her by "The 
Dunciad" injured her prospects cannot be doubted. She 
was far from being a "signal illustration of the powerless- 
ness of this attack upon the immediate fortunes of those 
assailed," as Professor Lounsbury describes her. 16 It is 
true that she continued to write, though with less frequency 
than before, and that some of her best-sellers were produced 
at a time when Pope's influence was at its height, but that 
the author was obliged to take extreme measures to avoid 
the ill consequences of the lampoon upon her may be proved 
by comparing the title-pages of her earlier and later novels. 

Before the publication of "The Dunciad" the adven- 
turess in letters had enjoyed a large share of popularity. 
Most of her legitimate works were advertised as "Written 
by Mrs. Eliza Haywood ' ' and bore her name in full promi- 
nently displayed on the title-page. That her signature 
possessed a distinct commercial value in selling popular 
fiction was amusingly illustrated by a bit of literary ras- 
cality practiced in 1727, when Arthur Bettesworth, the 
bookseller, issued a chapbook called "The Pleasant and 
Delightful History of Gillian of Croydon." After a long 

ieT. E. Lounsbury, The Text of Shakespeare, 275. "But the 
attack upon Mrs. Haywood exceeded all bounds of decency. To the 
credit of the English race nothing so dastardly and vulgar can be 
found elsewhere in English literature. If the influence of 'The 
Dunciad ' was so all-powerful as to ruin the prospects of any one it 
satirized, it ought certainly to have crushed her beyond hope of any 
revival. As a matter of fact Mrs. Haywood's most successful and 
popular writings were produced after the publication of that poem, 
and that too at a period when Pope's predominance was far higher 
than it was at the time the satire itself appeared. ' ' 



128 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MBS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

summary of the contents in small type came the statement, 
"The Whole done much after the same Method as those 
celebrated Novels, By Mrs. ELIZA HAYWOOD," the 
forged author's name being emphasized in the largest pos- 
sible type in the hope that a cursory glance at the title-page 
might deceive a prospective buyer. 17 Of her forty publi- 
cations before 1728 only fifteen, of which five from their 
libelous nature could not be acknowledged, failed to sail 
openly under her colors. Only once did she employ any 
sort of pseudonym, and only in one case was her signature 
relegated to the end of the dedication. 18 A word of scorn 
from the literary dictator, however, was enough to turn the 
taste of the town, not indeed away from sensational and 
scandalous fictions, but away from the hitherto popular 
writer of them. Eliza Haywood was no longer a name to 
conjure with; her reputation was irretrievably gone. It 
was no unusual thing in those days for ladies in semi- 
public life to outlive several reputations. The quondam 
Clio had already found the notoriety of that name too 
strong for her comfort, and had been rechristened Mira by 
the dapper Mr. Mallet. 19 Instead of adopting some such 
expedient Mrs. Haywood found it more convenient simply 
to lapse into anonymity. Of the four novels published 
within a year after "The Dunciad" none bore her name on 
the title-page, though two had signed dedications and the 

it A. Esdaile, English Tales and Bomances, Introduction, xxviii. 

is The Mercenary Lover. . . . Written by the Author of Memoirs 
of the said Island [Utopia] and described on the half-title as by E. 
H. and The Fair Captive, a tragedy not originally written by her. 

is Philobiblon Soc. Misc., IV, 12. "Clio must be allowed to be a 
most complete poetess, if she really wrote those poems that bear her 
name; but it has of late been so abused and scandalized, that I am 
informed she has lately changed it for that of Myra. ' ' Quoted from 
the British Journal, 24 September, 1726.. I am indebted to Miss 
Dorothy Brewster's Aaron Hill, 189, for this reference. 



THE HEROINE OF "THE DTJNCIAD" 129 

others were advertised as by her. Not one of them was 
re-issued. The tragedy "Frederick, Duke of Brunswick- 
Lunenburgh, " known to be of her make, was a complete 
failure, and "Love-Letters on All Occasions" (1730) with 
"Collected by Mrs. Eliza Haywood" on the title-page never 
reached a second edition. Both her translations from the 
French, "L'Entretien des Beaux Esprits" (1734) and 
"The Virtuous Villager" (1742), were acknowledged at the 
end of the dedications, and both were unsuccessful, although 
the anonymous predecessor of the former, "La Belle As- 
semble " (1725), ran through eight editions. The single 
occurrence of Mrs. Haywood's name on a title-page after 
1730, if we except the two reprints of "Secret Histories," 
was when the unacknowledged "Adventures of Eovaai" 
(1736) re-appeared five years later as "The Unfortunate 
Princess" with what seems to be a "fubbed" title-page 
for which the author was probably not responsible. And 
the successful works referred to by Professor Lounsbury 
were all either issued without any signature or under such 
designations as "the Author of the Fortunate Foundlings," 
or "Mira, one of the Authors of the Female Spectator," or 
"Exploralibus," so that even the reviewers sometimes ap- 
peared to be ignorant of the writer's identity. 

Moreover, Mrs. Haywood's re-establishment as an anony- 
mous author seems to have been a work of some difficulty, 
necessitating a ten years' struggle against adversity. Be- 
tween 1731 and 1741 she produced fewer books than during 
any single year of her activity after the publication of 
"Idalia" and before "The Dunciad." Her probable share 
in the "Secret Memoirs of Mr. Duncan Campbel" was 
merely that of a hack writer, her contributions to the 
"Opera of Operas" were of the most trifling nature, and 
the two volumes of "L'Entretien des Beaux Esprits" were 
not original. For six years after the "Adventures of 
10 



130 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Eovaai" she sent to press no work now known to be hers, 
and not until the catch-penny "Present for a Servant- 
Maid" (1743) and the anonymous "Fortunate Found- 
lings' ' (1744) did her wares again attain the popularity of 
several editions. All due credit must be allowed Mrs. Hay- 
wood for her persistent efforts to regain her footing as a 
woman of letters, for during this time she had little en- 
couragement. Pope 's attack did destroy her best asset, her 
growing reputation as an author, but instead of following 
Savage's ill-natured advice to turn washerwoman, she re- 
mained loyal to her profession and in her later novels 
gained greater success than she had ever before enjoyed. 
But it was only her dexterity that saved her from literary 
annihilation. 20 

The lesson of her hard usage at the hands of Pope and 
his allies, however, was not lost upon the adaptable dame. 
After her years of silence Mrs. Haywood seems to have re- 
turned to the production of perishable literature with less 
inclination for gallantry than she had evinced in her early 
romances. Warm-blooded creature though she was, Eliza 
could not be insensible to the cooling effect of age, and per- 
haps, too, she perceived the more sober moral taste of the 
new generation. "In the numerous volumes which she 

20 See Clara Keeve, The Progress of Romance (1785), I, 121. [I 
have re-arranged the passage for the sake of brevity.] 

"Soph. I have heard it often said that Mr. Pope was too severe 
in his treatment of this lady: it was supposed that she had given 
some private offence, which he resented publicly, as was too much 
his way. 

" Euph. Mr. Pope was severe in his castigations, but let us be 
just to merit of every kind. Mrs. Eeywood had the singular good 
fortune to recover a lost reputation and the yet greater honour to 
atone for her errors. — She devoted the remainder of her life and 
labours to the service of virtue. . . . Those works by which she is 
most likely to be known to posterity, are the Female Spectator, and 
the Invisible Spy. ..." 



THE HEROINE OF "THE DUNCIAD" 131 

gave to the world towards the latter part of her life," says 
the ' ' Biographia Dramatica, ' ' somewhat hastily, ' ' no author 
has appeared more the votary of virtue, nor are there any 
novels in which a stricter purity, or a greater delicacy of 
sentiment, has been preserved." Without discussing here 
the comparative decency of Mrs. Haywood's later novels, 
we may admit at once, with few allowances for change of 
standard, the moral excellence of such works as "The 
Female Spectator" and "Epistles for the Ladies." Cer- 
tainly if the penance paid by the reader is any test, the 
novelist was successful in her effort to atone for the loose- 
ness of her early writings, when she left the province of 
fiction for that of the periodical essay. 



CHAPTER VI 



LETTEES AND ESSAYS 



The works of Mrs. Haywood's maturity most renowned 
for their pious intent were not of the tribe of novels, but 
rather in the shape of letters or periodical essays such as 
"Epistles for the Ladies" (1749) and "The Female Spec- 
tator" (1746). Each of these forms, as practiced during 
the eighteenth century, permitted the introduction of short 
romantic stories either for the purpose of illustrating a 
moral or to make the didacticism more palatable. Even as 
a votary of virtue Eliza did not neglect to mingle a liberal 
portion of dulce with her utile; indeed in the first of the 
productions mentioned she manifested an occasional tend- 
ency to revert to the letter of amorous intrigue character- 
istic of her earlier efforts. In her latest and soberest writ- 
ings, the conduct books called "The Wife" and "The 
Husband" (1756), she frequently yielded to the temptation 
to turn from dry precept to picturing the foibles of either 
sex. Her long training in the school of romance had made 
gallantry the natural object of Eliza Haywood's thoughts. 

During the time that she was incessantly occupied with 
short tales of passion she had experimented in both the 
letter and the essay form, using the former especially as an 
adjunct to her stories. One of her first attempts, also, to 
find her proper vein as an author was a translation from 
the French of the "Letters from a Lady of Quality to a 
Chevalier," with a "Discourse concerning "Writings of this 
Nature, by Way of Essay" for which the translator was 
responsible. In "The Tea-Table" (1725), which never ad- 
vanced beyond the second part, and "Reflections on the 
132 



LETTERS AND ESSAYS 133 

Various Effects of Love" (1726) the then well-known 
novelist returned to the essay form, and a comprehensive 
volume of "Love-Letters on All Occasions" (1730) closed 
the first period of her literary activity. But none of these 
departures was noticeably different in tone from her staple 
romances. 

The sweets of love were perhaps most convincingly re- 
vealed in the amorous billets of which "Love in Excess" 
and many of Eliza's subsequent pieces of fiction contained 
a plentiful supply. Letters languishing with various de- 
grees of desire or burning with jealous rage were intro- 
duced into the story upon any pretext. Writing them was 
evidently the author's forte, and perusing them apparently 
a pleasure to her readers, for they remained a conspicuous 
part of Mrs. Haywood's sentimental paraphernalia. As in 
the French romances of the Scudery type the missives were 
quoted at length and labeled with such headings as, "The 
Despairing D'Elmont to his Repenting Charmer," or "To 
the never enough Admir'd Count D'Elmont," and signed 
with some such formula as, "Your most passionate and 
tender, but ( 'till she receives a favorable Answer) your 
unknown Adorer." The custom of inserting letters in the 
course of the story was, as has already been indicated, a 
heritage from the times of Gomberville, La Calprenede, and 
the Scuderys when miscellaneous material of all sorts from 
poetry to prosy conversations was habitually used to diver- 
sify the narrative. Mrs. Haywood, however, employed the 
letter not to ornament but to intensify. Her billets-doux 
like the lyrics in a play represent moments of supreme 
emotion. In seeking vividness she too often fell into exag- 
geration, as in the following specimen of absolute passion. 

" Torture — Distraction — Hell — what will become of me — I can- 
not — I will not survive the Knowledge that you are mine no more 
— Yet this Suspence is worse than all yet ever bore the Name of 



134 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Horror — Let me not linger in it, if you have Humanity — declare 
my Doom at once — be kind in Cruelty at least, and let one Death 
conclude the thousand, thousand Deaths which every Minute of 
Uncertainty brings with it, to 

The Miserable, but 

Still Adoring 

Melantha. 
P.S. I have order'd the Messenger to bring an Answer; if he 
comes without, depend I will murder him, and then myself." 1 

Such remnants of the romantic tradition as the verses on 
1 ' The Unfortunate Camilla 's Complaint to the Moon, for the 
Absence of her dear Henricus Frankville" in "Love in 
Excess" were soon discarded, but the letters, though they 
encumbered the progress of the narrative, made it more 
realistic by giving an opportunity for the display of pas- 
sion at first hand. Their continued vogue was undoubt- 
edly due in large measure to the popularity of the celebrated 
"Letters of a Portuguese Nun" (1669), which, with a note 
of sincerity till then unknown, aided the return to natural- 



ness 



The "Lettres Nouvelles de Monsieur Boursault . . . Avec 
Treize Lettres Amoureuses d'une Dame a un Cavalier," 
loosely translated by Mrs. Haywood as "Letters from a 
Lady of Quality to a Chevalier" (1721), 3 was one of the 
numerous imitations of the Portuguese Letters. Like most 
of the other imitations it echoed the mannerisms rather than 
the fervor of its original. The lady's epistles do not reveal 
a story, but describe in detail the doubts, disappointments, 
fears, jealousies, and raptures of a married woman for a 

i Memoirs of a Certain Island, I, 141. The letter is one of a 
packet conveyed away by Sylphs much resembling those in The Bape 
of the Locle. 

2 Miss C. E. Morgan, The Novel of Manners, 72. 

s The author herself describes it in the Preface as ' ' more properly 
... a Paraphrase than a Translation." 



LETTERS AND ESSAYS 135 

lover who in the last three letters has left France for Eng- 
land. Except for this remove there is no change in the 
situation of the characters. The lover apparently remains 
constant to the end. The reader is even left in some doubt 
as to the exact nature of their relationship. The lady at 
one time calls it a "criminal Conversation," but later 
resents an attempt upon her honor, and seems generally to 
believe that "a distant Conversation, if it is less sweet, 
will be, not only more pure, but also more durable." 

But perhaps it is only fair to let the author speak for 
herself. 

" The Lady, whose Letters I have taken the liberty to translate, 
tho she has been cautious enough in expressing any thing (even 
in those the most tender among them) which can give the Reader 
an Assurance she had forfeited her Virtue; yet there is not one, 
but what sufficiently proves how impossible it is to maintain such 
a Correspondence, without an Anxiety and continual Perturbation 
of Mind, which I think a Woman must have bid farewell to her 
Understanding, before she could resolve to endure. 

" In the very first she plainly discovers the Agitation of her 
Spirits, confesses she knows herself in the wrong, and that every 
Expression her Tenderness forces from her, is a Stab to her Peace ; 
she dreads the Effects of her Lover's too powerful Attractions, 
doubts her own Strength of resisting such united Charms as she 
finds in him, and trembles at the Apprehensions, that by some 
unlucky Accident the Secret should be known. Every thing alarms 
her . . . 'Tis impossible to be conscious of any thing we wish to 
conceal, without suspecting the most undesigning Words and Ac- 
tions as Snares laid to entrap us . . . So this unfortunate Lady, 
divided between Excess of Love, and Nicety of Honour, could 
neither resolve to give a loose to the one, nor entirely obey the 
Precepts of the other, but suffered herself to be tossed alternately 
by both. And tho the Person she loved was most certainly (if 
such a thing can be) deserving all the Condescensions a Woman 
could make, by his Assiduity, Constancy, and Gratitude, yet it 
must be a good while before she could receive those Proofs: and 



136 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

the Disquiets she suffered in that time of Probation, were, I think, 
if no worse ensued, too dear a Price for the Pleasure of being 
beloved by the most engaging and most charming of his Sex." 

The "Discourse concerning Writings of this Nature," 
from which the above quotation is taken, makes no attempt 
to consider other series of amorous letters, but proceeds to 
enforce by platitudes and scraps of poetry the only too 
obvious moral of the lady of quality's correspondence. 
The author remembers how "a Lady of my Acquaintance, 
perhaps not without reason, fell one day, as she was sitting 
with me, into this Poetical Exclamation: 

" The Pen can furrow a fond Female's Heart, 
And pierce it more than Cupid's talk'd-of Dart : 
Letters, a kind of Magick Virtue have, 
And, like strong Philters, human Souls enslave ! " 

After thirty pages of moralizing the writer comes to a con- 
clusion with the reflection, a commonplace of her novels, 
that "if the little I have done, may give occasion to some 
abler Pen to expose [such indiscretions] more effectually, 
I shall think myself happy in having given a hint, which 
improv'd, may be of so general a Service to my Sex." But 
the impression left by this and others of Mrs. Haywood's 
works is that the fair novelist was not so much interested 
in preventing the inadvertencies of her sex as in exposing 
them. 

The tender passion was still the theme in "Love-Letters 
on All Occasions Lately passed between Persons of Dis- 
tinction," which contains a number of letters, mainly dis- 
connected, devoted to the warmer phases of gallantry. 
Some are essays in little on definite subjects: levity, sin- 
cerity, the pleasures of conjugal affection, insensibility, 
and so on. Most of them, however, are occasional : ' ' Stre- 
phon to Dalinda, on her forbidding him to speak of Love," 



LETTERS AND ESSAYS 137 

"Orontes to Deanira, entreating her to give him a meet- 
ing,'' and many others in which both the proper names 
and the situations suggest the artificial romances. None 
of the missives reveals emotions of any but the most tawdry 
romantic kind, warm desires extravagantly uttered, con- 
ventional doubts, causeless jealousies, and petty quarrels. 
Like Mrs. Behn's correspondence with the amorous Van 
Bruin these epistles have nothing to distinguish them ex- 
cept their excessive hyperbole. There is one series of twenty- 
four connected letters on the model of "Letters from a 
Lady of Quality to a Chevalier," relating the love story of 
Theano and Elismonda, but in the course of the whole cor- 
respondence nothing more momentous occurs than the 
lover's leaving town. Indeed so imperceptible is the nar- 
rative element in Mrs. Haywood's epistolary sequences that 
they can make no claim to share with the anonymous love 
story in letters entitled "Love's Posy" (1686), with the 
"Letters Written By Mrs. Manley" (1696), 4 or with Tom 
Brown's "Adventures of Lindamira" (1702) in twenty- 
four letters, the honor of having anticipated Richardson's 
method of telling a story in epistolary form. 5 

Even after the publication of "Pamela" and "Clarissa" 
Mrs. Haywood failed to realize the narrative possibilities 
of consecutive letters, for "Epistles for the Ladies" (1749) 
hardly contains three missives on any one theme. Though 
the collection is not free from letters in the vein of gal- 
lantry, the emphasis on the whole is decidedly changed. 
There are few attempts to exploit the emotions by describ- 
ing the palpitations of injured beauty or the expostulations 
and vows of love-sick cavaliers. Instead Aminta is praised 
for enduring with unusual self-possession the treachery of 
her lover and her most intimate friend. Sophronia en- 

* Later A Stage-Coach Journey to Exeter, 1725. 

s A. Esdaile, English Tales and Romances, Introduction, xxxiii. 



138 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

courages Palmira to persist in her resolution of living apart 
from her husband until she is convinced of the reformation 
of his manners, and Isabinda sends to Elvira a copy of a 
modest epithalamium on her sister's marriage. Occasionally 
a romantic love story runs through three or four letters, 
but any deviation from the strictest principles of delicacy — 
and there are not many — is sure to be followed by a fitting 
catastrophe. Some reprobation of the licentious manners 
of the age is permitted, but no catering to degenerate taste 
and no breath of scandal. The aim of the epistles, which 
were apparently not intended as models, was to convey 
moral precepts in an agreeably alleviated form, but the 
balance inclines rather heavily toward sober piety. A 
mother recommends poetry and history for the reading of 
her twelve year old daughter, though allowing an occa- 
sional indulgence in "well wrote Novels." Eusebia dis- 
cusses the power of divine music with the Bishop of ***. 
Berinthia writes to Berenice to urge her to make the neces- 
sary preparations for futurity. Philenia assures the Rev- 
erend Doctor *** that she is a true penitent, and beseeches 
his assistance to strengthen her pious resolutions. Hillaria 
laments to Clio that she is unable to think seriously on 
death, and Aristander edifies Melissa by proving from the 
principles of reason and philosophy the certainty of a fu- 
ture existence, and the absurdity and meanness of those 
people's notions, who degrade the dignity of their species, 
and put human nature on a level with that of the brute 
creation. In all this devotion there was no doubt some- 
thing of Mrs. Rowe. "Epistles for the Ladies" was not 
the first "attempt to employ the ornaments of romance in 
the decoration of religion" 6 nor the best, but along with 
the pious substance the author sometimes adopts an almost 

e Robert Boyle 's Martyrdom of Theodora, 1687, is thus described 
by Dr. Johnson. Boswell 's Johnson, Oxford ed., I, 208. 



LETTERS AND ESSAYS 139 

Johnsonian weightiness of style, as when Ciamara gives to 
Sophronia an account of the finishing of a fine building she 
had been at an infinite expense in erecting, with some moral 
reflections on the vanity and disappointment of all sub- 
lunary expectations. 

In her essays, even the most serious, Mrs. Haywood was 
a follower of Addison rather than Johnson. The first of 
them, if we disregard the slight discourse appended to the 
' ' Letters from a Lady of Quality to a Chevalier, ' ' was ' ' The 
Tea-Table: or, A Conversation between some Polite Per- 
sons of both Sexes, at a Lady's Visiting Day. Wherein 
are represented the Various Foibles, and Affectations, 
which form the Character of an Accomplish 'd Beau, or 
Modern Fine Lady. Interspersed with several Entertain- 
ing and Instructive Stories," 7 (1725), which most resembles 
a "day" detached from the interminable "La Belle As- 
sembled " of Mme de Gomez, translated by Mrs. Haywood 
a few months before. There is the same polite conversa- 
tion, the debate between love and reason, the poem, 8 and the 
story. But the moral reflections upon tea-tables, the de- 
scription of Amiana's, where only wit and good humor pre- 
vail, and the satirical portraits of a titled coxcomb and a 
bevy of fine ladies, are all in the manner of the "Tatler." 
The manuscript novel read by one of the company savors 
of nothing but Mrs. Haywood, who was evidently unable 
to slight her favorite theme of passion. Her comment on 
contemporary manners soon gives place to "Beraldus and 
Celemena: or the Punishment of Mutability," a tale of 
court intrigue in her warmest vein. The authors of the 

7 Not to be confused with a periodical entitled The Tea-Table. To 
be continued every Monday and Friday. No. 1-36, 21 February to 
22 June, 1724. B.M. (P. P. 5306). 

s Ximene fearing to be forsaken by Palemon, desires he would Mil 
her. Quoted by Dyce, Specimens of British Poetesses, 1827, p. 186. 



140 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

"Tatler" and "Spectator" had, of course, set a precedent 
for the inclusion of short romantic stories in the essay of 
manners, and even the essays with no distinct element of 
fiction were preparing for the novelist the powerful tool 
of characterization. "Writers of fiction were slow to apply 
the new art to their proper materials. In the present in- 
stance an experienced novelist employed the essay form to 
depict the follies and affectations of a beau and fine ladies, 
and immediately turned back to a story in which character- 
ization is almost entirely neglected for incident. It is 
interesting to find the same writer using the realistic sketch 
of manners and the romantic tale of intrigue and passion 
without any thought of combining the two elements. In 
the second part of "The Tea-Table" Mrs. Haywood made 
no attempt to diversify the patchwork of verse and prose 
with any narrative, save one small incident illustrating 
pride. The sole point of interest is the long and laudatory 
tribute to her friend Aaron Hill in "A Pastoral Dialogue, 
between Alexis and Clarinda; Occasioned by Hillarius's 
intending a Voyage to America." 

The "Reflections on the Various Effects of Love" (1726), 
however, takes full advantage of the looseness of the essay 
form to become a mere tissue of short narratives illustrat- 
ing the consequences of passion. The stories of Celia and 
Evandra, one cursing her betrayer, the other wishing him 
always happy, exemplify revengeful and generous love. 
There are two model epistles from Climene to Mirtillo, the 
first upon his absence, the second upon his desertion of her. 
Soon the trite remarks degenerate into a scandal novel, 
relating the history of Sophiana, abandoned by Aranthus 
and sought by Martius, with many of her letters describing 
her gradual change of heart in favor of the beseeching 
lover. In the midst of exposing Hibonio's sudden infatua- 
tion for a gutter-nymph, the essay abruptly ends with the 



LETTERS AND ESSAYS 141 

exclamation, "More of this in our next." Though there 
was no lack of slander at the end of Mrs. Haywood's pen, 
she never attempted to continue the "Reflections." 

But almost twenty years later she made a more note- 
worthy excursion into the field of the periodical essay. 
"The Female Spectator," begun in April, 1744, and con- 
tinued in monthly parts until May, 1746, bid fair to become 
the best known and most approved of her works. The 
twenty-four numbers (two months being omitted) were 
bound in four volumes upon the completion of the series 
and sold with such vigor that an edition labeled the third 
was issued at Dublin in 1747. In 1771 the seventh and last 
English edition was printed. As in the original "Specta- 
tor" the essays are supposed to be the product of a Club, 
in this case composed of four women. After drawing her 
own character in the terms already quoted, 9 Mrs. Haywood 
mentions as her coadjutors in the enterprise "Mira, a 
Lady descended from a Family to w T hieh Wit seems hered- 
itary, married to a Gentleman every way worthy of so ex- 
cellent a Wife. . . . The next is a Widow of Quality" who 
has not "buried her Vivacity in the Tomb of her Lord. . . . 
The Third is the Daughter of a wealthy Merchant, charm- 
ing as an Angel. . . . This fine young Creature I shall call 
Euphrosine." The suspiciously representative character 
of these assistants may well make us doubt their actuality ; 
and from the style of the lucubrations, at least, no evidence 
of a plurality of authors can readily be perceived. Indeed 
after the first few numbers we hear nothing more of them. 
"Mira" was the pseudonym used by Mrs. Haywood in 
"The Wife" (1756), while a periodical called "The Young 
Lady" began to appear just before her death under the 
pen-name of Euphrosine. 

Whether written by a Female Spectator Club or by a 

9 See ante, p. 24. 



142 LITE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

single authoress, the essays in purpose, method, and style 
are evidently imitated from their famous model. The 
loose plan and general intention to rectify the manners of 
the age allowed the greatest latitude in the choice of sub- 
ject matter. In a single paper are jumbled together topics 
so diverse as the degradation of the stage, the immoderate 
use of tea, and the proper choice of lovers. The duty of 
periodical essayists to castigate the follies of the time is 
graphically represented in the frontispiece to the second 
volume, where Apollo, seated on some substantial clouds 
and holding in his hand "The Female Spectator,'' de- 
spatches a flying Mercury, who in spite of the efforts of two 
beaux with drawn swords and a belle in deshabille, chas- 
tises a female figure of Luxuria lolling in a chariot pulled 
by one inadequate grasshopper. In the essays themselves 
the same purpose led to the censure of gambling, lying, 
affectation of youth by the aged, jilts, " Anti-Eternitarians, " 
scandal bearing, and other petty sins and sinners. For 
political readers a gentleman contributes a conversation 
between a Hanoverian and an English lady, in which the 
latter has the best of the argument. An account of Topsy- 
Turvy Land satirizes illogical practices in a manner fami- 
liar to the readers of "The Bab Ballads." The few liter- 
ary papers are concerned with true and false taste, the 
delights of reading, Mr. Akenside's "Pleasures of the 
Imagination" and the horrors of the same, the outwearing 
of romance, and love-letters passed between Augustus 
Caesar and Livia Drusilla, which last Mrs. Haywood was 
qualified to judge as an expert. Essays on religion and 
the future life reveal something of the sober touch and 
moral earnestness of Johnson, but nothing of his compact 
and weighty style. As in the ' ' Spectator, ' ' topics are often 
introduced by a scrap of conversation by way of a text or 
by a letter from a correspondent setting forth some par- 



LETTERS AND ESSAYS 143 

ticular grievance. The discussion is frequently illustrated 
by anecdotes or even by stories, though the author makes 
comparatively small use of her talent for fiction. Indeed 
she records at one point that "Many of the Subscribers to 
this Undertaking . . . complain that ... I moralize too 
much, and that I give them too few Tales." The Oriental 
setting used by Addison with signal success is never at- 
tempted and even scandal stories are frowned upon. In- 
stead of the elaborate and elegantly turned illustrative 
narratives of the "Spectator," Mrs. Haywood generally 
relates anecdotes which in spite of the disguised names 
savor of crude realism. They are examples rather than 
illustrations of life. 

One of the most lively is a story told to show the inevi- 
table unhappiness of a marriage between persons of differ- 
ent sects. The husband, a High Church man, and the wife, 
of Presbyterian persuasion, were happy enough during the 
first months of married life, "tho' he sometimes expressed 
a Dissatisfaction at being denied the Pleasure of leading 
her to Westminster-Abbey, for he would hear no Divine 
Service out of a Cathedral, and she was no less troubled 
that she could not prevail with him to make his Appearance 
with her at the Conventicle." Consequently when their 
first child was born, they were unable to agree how the boy 
was to be baptized. "All their Discourse was larded with 
the most piquant Reflections," but to no purpose. The 
father insisted upon having his own way, but Amonia, as 
his consort was not inappropriately named, was no less 
stubborn in her detestation of lawn sleeves, and on the eve 
of the christening had the ceremony privately performed 
by her own minister. When the bishop and the guests were 
assembled, she announced with "splenetic Satisfaction" 
that the child had already been "made a Christian" and 
that his name was John. The astonished husband lapsed 



144 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

into an "adequate rage," and though restrained by the 
company from doing an immediate violence to his help- 
mate, was permanently estranged from her through his re- 
sentment. Two other stories from "The Female Spectator" 
were quoted by Dr. Nathan Drake in his "Gleaner." 

In her bold attempt to rival Addison upon his own 
ground Mrs. Haywood was more than moderately successful 
in the estimation of many of her contemporaries. Ram- 
bling and trite as are the essays in her periodical, their 
excellent intentions, at least, gained them a degree of popu- 
larity. A writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for De- 
cember, 1744, applauding the conspicuous merit of the 
"fair philosophers in virtue's cause," declared that 

"Were your great predecessor yet on earth, 
He'd be the first to speak your page's worth, 
There all the foibles of the fair you trace; 
There do you shew your sex's truest grace; 
There are the various wiles of man display 'd, 
In gentle warnings to the cred'lous maid; 
Politely pictur'd, wrote with strength and ease, 

And while the wand'rer you reclaim, you please 

Women, the heart of women best can reach; 

While men from maxims — you from practice teach." 

The latter part of the panegyric shows that the fair 
romancer had not been entirely smothered in the fair 
philosopher and moral essayist. 

Perhaps encouraged by the success of "The Female 
Spectator" to publish more frequently, or actuated by a 
desire to appeal to the public interest in the political ex- 
citement of 1745-6, Mrs. Haywood next attempted to com- 
bine the periodical essay with the news-letter, but the inno- 
vation evidently failed to please. ' ' The Parrot, with a 
Compendium of the Times" ran only from 2 August to 4 
October, 1746. The numbers consisted commonly of two 
parts : the first being moralizings on life and manners by a 



LETTERS AND ESSAYS 145 

miraculous parrot; and the second a digest of whatever 
happenings the author could scrape together. The news of 
the day was concerned chiefly with the fate of the rebels in 
the last Stuart uprising and with rumors of the Pre- 
tender's movements. From many indications Eliza Hay- 
wood would seem to have taken a lively interest in the 
Stuart cause, but certainly she had no exceptional facilities 
for reporting the course of events, and consequently her 
budget of information was often stale or filled with vague 
surmises. But she did not overlook the opportunity to nar- 
rate con amore such pathetic incidents as the death of 
Jemmy Dawson's sweetheart at the moment of his execu- 
tion, later the subject of Shenstone's ballad. The vapor- 
izings of the parrot were also largely inspired by the trials 
of the rebels, but the sagacious bird frequently drew upon 
such stock subjects as the follies of the gay world, the 
character of women, the unreliability of venal praise and 
interested personal satire, and the advantages of making 
one's will — the latter illustrated by a story. Somewhat 
more unusual was a letter from an American Poll, repre- 
senting how much it was to the interest of England to pre- 
serve, protect, and encourage her plantations in the New 
"World, and complaining of the tyranny of arbitrary gov- 
ernors. But the essay parts of "The Parrot" are not even 
equal to "The Female Spectator" and deserve no lighten- 
ing of the deep and speedy oblivion cast upon them. 

Besides her periodical essays Mrs. Haywood wrote during 
her declining years several conduct books, which, beyond 
showing the adaptability of her pen to any species of writ- 
ing, have but small importance. One of them, though in- 
heriting something from Defoe, owed most to the interest in 
the servant girl heroine excited by Richardson's first novel. 
No sociologist has yet made a study of the effect of 
"Pamela" upon the condition of domestics, but the many 
II 



146 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

excellent maxims on the servant question uttered by Lord 
B and his lady can hardly have been without in- 
fluence upon the persons of the first quality who pored over 
the volumes. In popular novels, at any rate, abigails and 
scullions reigned supreme. In 1752 the "Monthly Review" 
remarked of a recent work of fiction, ' ' The History of Betty 
Barnes," that it seemed "chiefly calculated for the amuse- 
ment of a class of people, to whom the Apprentice's Moni- 
tor, or the Present for a servant maid might be recom- 
mended to much better purpose," but the reviewer's cen- 
sure failed to quell the demand for romances of the kitchen. 
Mrs. Haywood, however, might have approved of his recom- 
mendation, since she happened to be the author of the little 
manual of household science especially urged upon the 
females below stairs. 

"A Present for a Servant-Maid. Or, the Sure Means of 
Gaining Love and Esteem" was frequently reprinted both 
in London and Dublin during the years 1743-4, and as late 
as 1772 a revision was mentioned in the "Monthly Review" 
as a "well-designed and valuable tract." 10 The work is a 
compendium of instructions for possible Pamelas, teaching 
them in brief how to wash, to market, to dress any sort of 
meat, to cook, to pickle, and to preserve their virtue. The 
maids are cautioned against such female errors as sluttish- 
ness, tale-bearing, staying on errands, telling family affairs, 
aping the fashion, and giving saucy answers. They are 
forbidden to play with fire or candles, to quarrel with fel- 
low domestics, to waste victuals or to give them away. A 
fine example of the morality of scruples inculcated by the 
tract is the passage on the duty of religious observance. A 
maidservant should not neglect to go to church at least 
every other Sunday, and should never spend the time 
allowed her for that purpose walking in the fields or drink- 

io Monthly Beview, XLVI, 463. April, 1772. 



LETTERS AND ESSAYS 147 

ing tea with an acquaintance. "Never say you have been 
at Church unless you have, but if you have gone out with 
that Intention, and been diverted from it by any Accident 
or Persuasions, confess the Truth, if asked." Girls so un- 
happy as to live with people who "have no Devotion them- 
selves" should entreat permission to go to church, and if it 
is refused them, rather leave their place than be deprived 
of sacred consolation. "If you lose one, that God, for 
whose sake you have left it, will doubtless provide another, 
and perhaps a better for you. ' ' Scarcely more edifying are 
the considerations of self-interest which should guide a 
maidservant into the paths of virtue. ' ' Industry and Fru- 
gality are two very amiable Parts of a Woman's Character, 
and I know no readier Way than attaining them, to procure 
you the Esteem of Mankind, and get yourselves good Hus- 
bands. Consider, my dear Girls, that you have no Por- 
tions, and endeavour to supply the Deficiencies of Fortune 
by Mind. ' ' And in pure Pamela vein is the advice offered 
to those maids whose honor is assailed. If the temptation 
come from the master, it will be well to reflect whether he 
is a single or a married man and act accordingly. One 
cannot expect the master's son to keep a promise of mar- 
riage without great difficulty, but the case may be different 
with a gentleman lodger, especially if he be old and doting. 
And the moral of all is: Don't sell yourselves too cheap. 
Finally to complete the usefulness of the pamphlet were 
added, "Directions for going to Market: Also, for Dress- 
ing any Common Dish, whether Flesh, Fish or Fowl. With 
some Rules for Washing, &c. The whole calculated for 
making both the Mistress and the Maid happy." 

More especially intended to promote the happiness of 
the mistress of the family, "The Wife, by Mira, One of the 
Authors of the Female Spectator, and Epistles for Ladies" 
(1756) contains advice to married women on how to behave 



148 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

toward their husbands in every conceivable situation, be- 
ginning with the first few weeks after marriage "vulgarly 
call'd the honey-moon," and ending with "How a Woman 
ought to behave when in a state of Separation from her 
Husband" — a subject upon which Mrs. Haywood could 
speak from first-hand knowledge. Indeed it must be con- 
fessed that the writer seems to be chiefly interested in the 
infelicities of married life, and continually alleviates the 
rigor of her didactic pasages with lively pictures of domes- 
tic jars, such as the following : 

" The happy day which had join'd this pair was scarce six weeks 
elapsed, when lo ! behold a most terrible reverse ; — the hurry of 
their fond passion was over; — dalliance was no more, — kisses and 
embraces were now succeeded by fighting, scratching, and endeav- 
ouring to tear out each other's eyes; — the lips that before could 
utter only, — my dear, — my life, — my soul, — my treasure, now 
pour'd forth nothing but invectives; — they took as little care to 
conceal the proofs of their animosity as they had done to moderate 
those of a contrary emotion; — they were continually quarreling; — 
their house was a Babel of confusion ; — no servant would stay with 
them a week; — they were shunn'd by their most intimate friends, 
and despis'd by all their acquaintance; till at last they mutually 
resolv'd to agree in one point, which was, to be separated for ever 
from each other" (p. 16). 

So the author discusses a wife's behavior toward a hus- 
band when laboring under disappointment or vexatious 
accidents ; sleeping in different beds ; how a woman should 
act when finding that her husband harbors unjust suspi- 
cions of her virtue; the great indiscretion of taking too 
much notice of the unmeaning or transient gallantries of a 
husband ; the methods which a wife is justified to take after 
supporting for a long time a complication of all manner of 
ill-usage from a husband; and other causes or effects of 
marital infelicity. Though marriage almost inevitably ter- 



LETTERS AND ESSAYS 149 

minates in a "brulee," the wife should spare no efforts to 
ameliorate her husband's faults. 

"If addicted to drinking, she must take care to have his cellar 
well stor'd with the best and richest wines, and never seem averse 
to any company he shall think fit to entertain : — If fond of women, 
she must endeavour to convince him that the virtuous part of the 
sex are capable of being as agreeable companions as those of the 
most loose principles; — and this, not by arguments, for those he 
will not listen to; — but by getting often to her house, the most 
witty, gay, and spirituous of her acquaintance, who will sing, 
dance, tell pleasant stories, and take all the freedoms that inno- 
ence allows" (p. 163). 

Occasionally the advice to married women is very practical, 
as the following deterrent from gluttony shows : 

" I dined one day with a lady, who the whole time she employ'd 
her knife and fork with incredible swiftness in dispatching a load 
of turkey and chine she had heap'd upon her plate, still kept a 
keen regard on what she had left behind, greedily devouring with 
her eyes all that remain'd in the dish, and throwing a look of envy 
on every one who put in for the smallest share. — My advice to 
such a one is, that she would have a great looking-glass fix'd oppo- 
site the seat she takes at table; and I am much mistaken, if the 
sight of herself in those grim attitudes I have mention'd, will not 
very much contribute to bring her to more moderation" (p. 276). 

The method of "The Husband, in Answer to the Wife" 
(1756) is similar to that of its companion-piece; in fact, 
much of the same advice is merely modified or amplified to 
suit the other sex. The husband is warned to avoid drink- 
ing to excess and some other particulars which may happen 
to be displeasing to his spouse, such as using too much 
freedom in his wife's presence with any of her female ac- 
quaintance. He is instructed in the manner in which it 
will be most proper for a married man to carry himself 
towards the maidservants of his family, and also the man- 



150 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

ner of behavior best becoming a husband on a full detection 
of his wife's infidelity. As in "The Wife" the path of 
marriage leads but to divorce. One is forcibly reminded 
of Hogarth's "Marriage a la Mode." 

Not altogether different is the conception of wedlock in 
Mrs. Haywood's novels of domestic life written at about 
the same period, but the pictures there shown are painted 
in incomparably greater detail, with a fuller appreciation 
of character, and without that pious didacticism which even 
the most lively exertions of Eliza Haywood's romancing 
genius failed to leaven in her essays. 



CHAPTER VII 

LATER FICTION": THE DOMESTIC NOVEL 

No such homogeneity as marked the works of Mrs. Hay- 
wood's first decade of authorship can be discovered in the 
productions of her last fifteen years. The vogue of the 
short romantic tale was then all but exhausted, her stock 
of scandal was no longer new, and accordingly she was 
obliged to grope her way toward fresh fields, even to the 
barren ground of the moral essay. But besides the letters, 
essays, and conduct books, and the anonymous pamphlets 
of doubtful character that may have occupied her pen 
during this period, she engaged in several experiments in 
legitimate prose fiction of various sorts, which have little 
in common except their more considerable length. Although 
the name of Mrs. Eliza Haywood was not displayed upon 
the title-pages nor mentioned in the reviews of these novels, 
the authorship was not carefully concealed and was prob- 
ably known to the curious. The titles of nearly all of them 
were mentioned by the "Biographia Dramatica" in the list 
of the novelist's meritorious works. 

The earliest and the only one to bear the signature of 
Eliza Haywood at the end of the dedication was borrowed 
from the multifarious and unremarkable literary wares of 
Charles de Fieux, Chevalier de Mouhy. "The Virtuous 
Villager, or Virgin's Victory: Being The Memoirs of a very 
Great Lady at the Court of France. "Written by Herself. 
In which the Artifices of designing Men are fully detected 
and exposed; and the Calamities they bring on credulous 
believing Woman, are particularly related," was given to 
the English public in 1742 as a work suited to inculcate the 
151 



152 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

principles of virtue, and probably owed its being to the 
previous success of ' ' Pamela. ' n In the original a dull and 
spiritless imitation of Marivaux, the work was not improved 
by translation, and met naturally the reception due its 
slender merits. But along with the English versions of 
Le Sage, Marivaux, and the Abbe Prevost, "The Virtuous 
Villager" helped to accustom the readers of fiction to two 
volume novels and to pave the way for the numerous pages 
of Richardson. 

Not more than a year from the time when the four duo- 
decimos of "Pamela" introduced kitchen morality into the 
polite world, the generosity of prominent men and women 
was directed toward a charity recently established after 
long agitation. 2 To furnish suitable decorations for the 
Foundling Hospital in Lamb's Conduit, Hogarth con- 
tributed the unsold lottery tickets for his "March to 
Finchley," and other well-known painters lent their serv- 
ices. Handel, a patron of the institution, gave the organ it 
still possesses, and society followed the lead of the men of 
genius. The grounds of the Foundling Hospital became in 
Georgian days a "fashionable morning lounge." "Writers 
of ephemeral literature were not slow to perceive how the 
wind lay and to take advantage of the interest aroused by 
the new foundation. The exposed infant, one of the oldest 
literary devices, was copiously revived, and during the 
decade when the Hospital was being constructed mention 
of foundlings on title-pages became especially common. A 
pamphlet called "The Political Foundling" was followed 

i A rival translation called The Fortunate Countrymaid had already 
been published in 1740-1, and may be read in the seventh tome of 
The Novelist's Magazine (Harrison). Clara Eeeve speaks of both 
translations as ' ' well known to the readers of Circulating Libraries. ' ' 
Progress of Romance (1785), I, 130. 

2 Austin Dobson, Eighteenth Century Vignettes, First Series, 44. 
"Captain Coram 's Charity." 



LATER FICTION: THE DOMESTIC NOVEL 153 

by the well-known "Foundling Hospital for Wit and 
Humour" (1743), by Mrs. Haywood's "Fortunate Found- 
lings" (1744), by Moore's popular comedy, "The Found- 
ling" (1748), and last and greatest by "The History of 
Tom Jones, a Foundling" (1749), not to mention "The 
Female Foundling" (1750). 

Eliza Haywood's contribution to foundling; literature relates the 
history of twins, brother and sister, found by a benevolent gentle- 
man named Dorilaus in the memorable year 1688. Louisa is of 
the tribe of Marianne, Pamela, and Henrietta, nor do her expe- 
riences differ materially from the course usually run by such 
heroines. Reared a model of virtue, she is obliged to fly from 
the house of her guardian to avoid his importunities. After serv- 
ing as a milliner's apprentice long enough to demonstrate the 
inviolability of her principles, she becomes mistress of the rules 
of politeness at the leading coui'ts of Europe as the companion of 
the gay Melanthe. Saved from an atrocious rake by an honorable 
lover, whom she is unwilling to accept because of the humbleness 
of her station, she takes refuge in a convent where she soon be- 
comes so popular that the abbess lays a plot to induce her to 
become a nun. But escaping the religious snare, she goes back 
to Paris to be claimed by Dorilaus as his real daughter. Thus 
every obstacle to her union with her lover is happily removed. 

Horatio, meanwhile, after leaving Westminster School to serve 
as a volunteer in Flanders, has encountered fewer amorous and 
more military adventures than usually fell to the lot of Hay- 
woodian heroes. His promising career under Marlborough is 
terminated when he is taken captive by the French, but he is sub- 
sequently released to enter the service of the Chevalier. He then 
becomes enamored of the beautiful Charlotta de Palfoy, and in 
the hope of making his fortune equal to hers, resolves to cast his 
lot with the Swedish monarch. In the Saxon campaign he wins 
a commission as colonel of horse and a comfortable share of the 
spoils, but later is taken prisoner by the Russians and condemned 
to languish in a dungeon at St. Petersburg. After many hard- 



154 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

ships be makes his way to Paris to be welcomed as a son by 
Dorilaus and as a husband by his adored Charlotta. 

In describing Horatio's martial exploits Mrs. Haywood 
may well have learned some lessons from the "Memoirs of 
a Cavalier." The narrative is direct and rapid, and diver- 
sified by the mingling of private escapades with history. 
Too much is made, of course, of the hero's personal rela- 
tions with Charles XII, but that is a fault which few his- 
torical novelists have known how to avoid. The geograph- 
ical background, as well as the historical setting, is laid out 
with a precision unusual in her fiction. The whole map of 
Europe is the scene of action, and the author speaks as one 
familiar with foreign travel, though her passing references 
to Paris, Venice, Vienna, and other cities have not the full 
vigor of the descriptions in "Peregrine Pickle." 

From the standpoint of structure, too, "The Fortunate 
Foundlings" is an improvement over the haphazard plots 
of Mrs. Haywood's early romances, though the double- 
barreled story necessitated by twin hero and heroine could 
hardly be told without awkward interruptions in the se- 
quence of one part of the narrative in order to forward the 
other. But the author doubtless felt that the reader's 
interest would be freshened by turning from the amorous 
adventures of Louisa to the daring deeds of Horatio, while 
a protagonist of each sex enabled her to exhibit at once 
examples of both male and female virtue. And in spite of 
inherent difficulties, she succeeded to some extent in show- 
ing an interrelation of plots, as where Dorilaus by going 
to the north of Ireland to hear the dying confession of the 
mother of his children, thereby misses Horatio's appeal for 
a ransom, and thus prevents him from rejoining Marl- 
borough's standard. But there is nothing like Fielding's 
ingenious linking of events and careful preparation for the 
catastrophe, nor did Mrs. Haywood make much out of the 



LATER FICTION: THE DOMESTIC NOVEL 155 

hint of unconscious incest and the foundling motif which her 
book has in common with ' ' Tom Jones. ' ' Occasionally also 
she cannot refrain from inserting a bit of court gossip or an 
amorous page in her warmest manner, but the number of 
intercalated stories is small indeed compared to that in a 
romance like "Love in Excess," and they are usually dis- 
missed in a few paragraphs. Here for the first time the 
author has shown some ability to subordinate sensational 
incident to the needs of the main plot. 

When Mrs. Haywood's inclination or necessities led her 
back to the novel four years later, she produced a work 
upon a still more consistent, if also more artificial plan 
than any of her previous attempts. "Life's Progress 
through the Passions: or, the Adventures of Natura" 
avowedly aims to trace the workings of human emotion. 
The author's purpose is to examine in "what manner the 
passions operate in every stage of life, and how far the con- 
stitution of the outward frame is concerned in the emotions 
of the internal faculties," for actions which we might ad- 
mire or abhor "would lose much of their eclat either way, 
were the secret springs that give them motion, seen into with 
the eyes of philosophy and reflection." Natura, a sort of 
Everyman exposed to the variations of passion, is not the 
faultless hero of romance, but a mere ordinary mortal. 
Indeed, the writer declares that she is "an enemy to all 
romances, novels, and whatever carries the air of them . . . 
and as it is a real, not fictitious character I am about to 
present, I think myself obliged ... to draw him such as 
he was, not such as some sanguine imaginations might wish 
him to have been." 

The survey of the passions begins with an account of Natura's 
birth of well-to-do but not extraordinary parents, his mother's 
death, and his father's second marriage, his attack of the small- 
pox, his education at Eton, and his boyish love for his little play- 



156 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

mate, Delia. Later he becomes more seriously compromised with 
a woman of the streets, who lures him into financial engagements. 
Though locked up by his displeased father, he manages to escape, 
finds his lady entertaining another gallant, and in despair becomes 
a regular vagabond. Just as he is about to leave England, his 
father discovers him and sends him to make the grand tour under 
a competent tutor. 

In Paris the tutor dies, and the young man is left to the exer- 
cise of his own discretion. Benighted in a wood, he finds shelter 
in a monastery of noble ladies, where both the abbess and her 
sister fall in love with him. After fluctuating between the two, 
he tries to elope with the sister, is foiled by the abbess, and sets 
off again upon his travels. In Italy he hears of his father's diffi- 
culties and starts for home, but enters the French service instead. 
He is involved with a nobleman in an attempt to abduct a lady 
from a nunnery, and would have been tortured had not the jailor's 
wife eloped with him to England. There he enters Parliament 
and is about to contract a fortunate marriage when he incautiously 
defends the Chevalier in conversation, fights a duel, and, although 
his antagonist is only wounded, he finds his reputation blighted 
by the stigma of Jacobitism. After a long illness at Vienna 
where he is pestered by Catholic priests, he recovers his health at 
Spa, and falls in love with a young English girl. Her parents 
gladly give their consent, but Maria seems unaccountably averse 
to the match. And when our hero is assaulted by a jealous foot- 
man, he perceives that the lady has fixed her affections on a lower 
object. Natura on his return to England prospers and marries 
happily, but his joy is soon destroyed by the death of his father 
and of his wife in giving birth to a son. Consumed by ambition, 
the widower then marries the niece of a statesman, only to discover 
what misery there is in a luxurious and unvirtuous wife. 

Natura soon experiences the passions of melancholy, grief, and 
revenge. His son dies, and his wife's conduct forces him to 
divorce her. In the hope of preventing his brother from inherit- 
ing his estate he is about to inarry a healthy count ry girl when 
he hears that his brother is dead and that his sister's son is now 
his heir. Thereupon he buys off his intended bride. At his sis- 



LATER FICTJON: THE DOMESTIC NOVEL 157 

ter's house he meets a young matron named Charlotte, for whom 
he long entertains a platonic affection, but finally marries her and 
has three sons. Thereafter he sinks into a calm and natural de- 
cline and dies in his sixty-third year. 

" Thus I have attempted to trace nature in all her mazy wind- 
ings, and shew life's progress through the passions, from the 
cradle to the grave. — The various adventures which happened to 
Natura, I thought, afforded a more ample field, than those of any 
one man I ever heard, or read of; and flatter myself, that the 
reader will find many instances, that may contribute to rectify 
his own conduct, by pointing out those things which ought to be 
avoided, or at least most carefully guarded against, and those 
which are worthy to be improved and imitated." 

The obvious and conventional moral ending and the 
shreds of romance that still adhere to the story need not 
blind us to its unusual features. Besides insisting upon the 
necessity for psychological analysis of a sort, the author 
here for the first time becomes a genuine novelist in the 
sense that her confessed purpose is to depict the actual con- 
ditions of life, not to glorify or idealize them. As Fielding 
was to do in "Tom Jones," Mrs. Haywood proclaims the 
mediocrity of her hero as his most remarkable quality. 
Had she been able to make him more than a lay figure dis- 
torted by various passions, she might have produced a real 
character. Although at times he seems to be in danger of 
acquiring the romantic faculty of causing every woman he 
meets to fall in love with him, yet the glamor of his youth 
is obscured by a peaceful and ordinary old age. Artificial 
in design and stilted in execution as the work is, it neverthe- 
less marks Eliza Haywood's emancipation from the tradi- 
tions of the romance. 3 

3 In one other respect Natura belongs to the new rather than to 
the old school: he takes genuine delight in the wilder beauties of 
the landscape. ' ' Whether you climb the craggy mountains or tra- 
verse the flowery vale; whether thick woods set limits to the sight, 



158 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

In "The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless" (1751) she 
reached the full fruition of her powers as a novelist. Her 
heroine, like Natura, is little more than a "humour" char- 
acter, whose prevailing fault is denoted by her surname. 4 
Though not fundamentally vicious, her heedless vanity, in- 
quisitiveness, and vivacity lead her into all sorts of follies 
and embarrassments upon her first entry into fashionable 
life in London. Among all the suitors who strive to make 
an impression upon her heart Mr. Trueworth alone suc- 
ceeds, but her levity and her disregard of appearances force 
him to think her unworthy of his attentions. Meanwhile 
her guardian's wife, Lady Mellasin, has been turned out of 
the house for an egregious infidelity, and Betsy is left to 
her own scant discretion. After somewhat annoying her 
brothers by receiving men at her lodgings, she elects under 
family pressure to marry a Mr. Munden, who quickly shows 
himself all that a husband should not be. Eventually she 
has to abandon him, but demonstrates her wifely devotion 
by going back to nurse him through his last illness. Mr. 
Trueworth 's mate in the interim has conveniently managed 
to succumb, his old passion revives, and exactly upon the 

or the wide common yields unbounded prospect; — whether the ocean 
rolls in solemn state before you, or gentle streams run purling by 
your side, nature in all her different shapes delights. . . The stu- 
pendous mountains of the Alps, after the plains and soft embowered 
recesses of Avignon, gave perhaps a no less grateful sensation to the 
mind of Natura." Such extraordinary appreciation in an age that 
regarded mountains as frightful excrescences upon the face of 
nature, makes the connoisseur of the passions a pioneer of the 
coming age rather than a survival of the last. 

* J. Ireland and J. Nichols, Hogarth's Works, Second Series, 31, 
note. "Mrs. Haywood's Betsy Thoughtless was in MS entitled 
Betsy Careless; but, from the infamy at that time annexed to the 
name, had a new baptism." The "inimitable Betsy Careless" is 
sufficiently immortalized in Fielding's Amelia, in Mrs. Charke's Life, 
and in Hogarth's Marriage a la Mode, Plate III. 



LATER FICTION: THE DOMESTIC NOVEL 159 

anniversary of Mr. Munden's death he arrives in a chariot 
and six to claim the fair widow, whose youthful levity has 
been chastened by the severe discipline of her unfortunate 
marriage. Told in an easy and dilatory style and inter- 
spersed with the inevitable little histories and impassioned 
letters, the story attained the conventional bulk of four 
duodecimo volumes. 

As Mr. Austin Dobson has pointed out, 5 Mrs. Haywood's 
novel is remarkable for its scant allusions to actual places 
and persons. Once mention is made of an appointment 
"at General Tatten's bench, opposite Rosamond's pond, in 
St. James's Park," and once a character refers to Cuper's 
Gardens, but except for an outburst of unexplained viru- 
lence directed against Fielding, 6 there is hardly a thought 
of the novelist's contemporaries. Here is a change indeed 
from the method of the chronique scandaleuse, and a re- 
straint to be wondered at when we remember the worthies 
caricatured by so eminent a writer as Smollett. But even 
more remarkable is the difference of spirit between "Betsy 

s Austin Dobson, Eighteenth Century Vignettes, Third Series, 99. 

6 ' ' There were no plays, no operas, no masquerades, no balls, no 
publick shews, except at the Little Theatre in the Hay Market, then 
known by the name of F g's scandal shop, because he fre- 
quently exhibited there certain drolls, or, more properly, invectives 
against the ministry; in doing which it appears extremely probable 
that he had two views; the one to get money, which he very much 
wanted, from such as delighted in low humour, and could not dis- 
tinguish true satire from scurrility; and the other, in the hope of 
having some post given him by those he had abused, in order to 
silence his dramatick talent. But it is not my business to point 
either the merit of that gentleman's performances, or the motives 
he had for writing them, as the town is perfectly acquainted both 
with his abilities and success, and has since seen him, with astonish- 
ment, wriggle himself into favour, by pretending to cajole those he 
had not the power to intimidate." The Novelist's Magazine, XIII, 
23. Quoted by Austin Dobson, Op. cit., 100. 



160 LITE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Thoughtless" and Mrs. Haywood's earlier and briefer 
romances. The young romanciere who in 1725 could write, 
"Love is a Topick which I believe few are ignorant of . . . 
a shady Grove and purling Stream are all Things that's 
necessary to give us an Idea of the tender Passion," 7 had in 
a quarter of a century learned much worldly wisdom, and 
her heroine likewise is too sophisticated to be moved by the 
style of love-making that warmed the susceptible bosoms 
of Anadea, Filenia, or Placentia. One of Betsy's suitors, 
indeed, ventured upon the romantic vein with no very 
favorable results. 

" ' The deity of soft desires,' said he, ' flies the confused glare 
of pomp and public shews; — 'tis in the shady bowers, or on the 
banks of a sweet purling stream, he spreads his downy wings, and 
wafts his thousand nameless pleasures on the fond — the innocent 
and the happy pair.' 

" He was going on, but she interrupted him with a loud laugh. 
' Hold, hold,' cried she ; ' was there ever such a romantick descrip- 
tion? I wonder how such silly ideas come into your head — 
" shady bowers ! and purling streams ! " — Heavens, how insipid ! 
Well' (continued she), 'you may be the Strephon of the woods, 
if you think fit ; but I shall never envy the happiness of the Chloe 
that accompanies you in these fine recesses. What ! to be cooped 
up like a tame dove, only to coo, and bill, and breed? 0, it would 
be a delicious life, indeed ! ' " 8 

Thus completely metamorphosed were the heroines of Mrs. 
Haywood's maturest fiction. Betsy Thoughtless is not even 
the innocent, lovely, and pliable girl typified in Fielding's 
Sophia Western. She is eminently hard-headed, inquisi- 
tive, and practical, and is justly described by Sir Walter 
Raleigh as "own cousin to Roderick Random." 9 

7 Dedication of The Fatal Secret. 

s The Novelist's Magazine, XIII, 106. Quoted by W. Forsyth, 
Novels and Novelists of the Eighteenth Century (1871), 211. 
9W. Ealeigh, The English Novel (Fifth edition, 1910), 139. 



LATER FICTION: THE DOMESTIC NOVEL 161 

Whether she may be considered also the ancestor of 
Evelina must briefly be considered. Dunlop, who appar- 
ently originated the idea that "Betsy Thoughtless" might 
have suggested the plan of Miss Burney's novel, worked 
out an elaborate parallel between the plots and some of the 
chief characters of the two compositions. 10 Both, as he 
pointed out, begin with the launching of a young girl on 
the great and busy stage of life in London. Each heroine 
has much to endure from the vulgar manners of a Lady 
Mellasin or a Madam Duval, and each is annoyed by the 
malice and impertinence of a Miss Flora or the Misses 
Branghton. Through their inexperience in the manners 
of the world and their heedlessness or ignorance of ceremony 
both young ladies are mortified by falling into embarrassing 
and awkward predicaments. Both in the same way alarm 
the delicacy and almost alienate the affections of their 
chosen lovers. "The chief perplexity of Mr. Trueworth, 
the admirer of Miss Thoughtless, arose from meeting her in 
company with Miss Forward, who had been her companion 
at a boarding-school, and of whose infamous character she 
Avas ignorant. In like manner the delicacy of Lord Orville 
is wounded, and his attachment shaken, by meeting his 
Evelina in similar society at Vauxhall. The subsequent 
visit and counsel of the lovers to their mistresses is seen, 
however, in a very different point of view by the heroines. ' ' 
The likeness between the plots of the two novels is indeed 
sufficiently striking to attract the attention of an experienced 
hunter for literary parallels, but unfortunately there is no 
external evidence to show that Miss Burney ever read her 
predecessor's work. One need only compare any two paral- 
lel characters, the common profligate, Lady Mellasin, for 
instance, with the delightfully coarse Madam Duval, to see 

10 J. C. Dunlop, History of Prose Fiction, edited by H. Wilson, 
n, 568, 

12 



162 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

how little the author of "Evelina" could have learned from 
the pages of Mrs. Haywood. 

But if it deserves scant credit as a model for Miss Bur- 
ney's infinitely more delicate art, "Betsy Thoughtless" 
should still be noticed as an early attempt to use the sub- 
stance of everyday life as material for fiction. It has been 
called with some justice the first domestic novel in the lan- 
guage. Although the exact definition of a domestic novel 
nowhere appears, the term may be understood — by expand- 
ing the French roman a la tasse de the — as meaning a 
realistic piece of fiction in which the heroine serves as chief 
protagonist, and which can be read with a teacup in one 
hand without danger of spilling the tea. Mrs. Haywood 
indeed drew upon her old stock of love scenes tender or 
importunate, duels, marital disputes, and elopements to 
lend interest to her story, but except for the mock-marriage 
with a scoundrelly valet from which the imprudent Betsy 
is rescued in the nick of time by her former lover, no pas- 
sage in the four volumes recommends itself particularly 
either to sense or to sensibility. There are few high lights in 
"Betsy Thoughtless"; the story keeps the even and loqua- 
cious tenor of its way after a fashion called insipid by the 
"Monthly Review," though the critic finally acknowledges 
the difficulty of the task, if not the success of the writer. 
"In justice to [our author], however, this may be further 
observed, that no other hand would, probably, have more 
happily finished a work begun on such a plan, as that of the 
history of a young inconsiderate girl, whose little foibles, 
without any natural vices of the mind, involve her in diffi- 
culties and distresses, which, by correcting, make her wiser, 
and deservedly happy in the end. A heroine like this, 
cannot but lay her historian under much disadvantage ; for 
tho' such an example may afford lessons of prudence, yet 
how can we greatly interest ourselves in the fortune of one, 



LATER FICTION : THE DOMESTIC NOVEL 163 

■whose character and conduct are neither amiable nor in- 
famous, and which we can neither admire, nor love, nor 
pity, nor be diverted with ? Great spirit in the writer, and 
uncommon beauties in the expression, are certainly neces- 
sary to supply the deficiency of such a barren foundation." 11 
Neither of the latter qualities was at the command of the 
"female pen" that composed "Betsy Thoughtless," but in 
spite of the handicap imposed by the plan of her work and 
the deficiencies of her genius, she produced a novel at once 
realistic and readable. Without resorting to the dramatic 
but inherently improbable plots by which Richardson made 
his writings at once "the joy of the chambermaids of all 
nations" 12 and something of a laughing stock to persons 
capable of detecting their absurdities, Mrs. Haywood pre- 
served his method of minute fidelity to actual life and still 
made her book entertaining to such a connoisseur of fiction 
as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. 13 Though rarely men- 
tioned with entire approbation, "Betsy Thoughtless" was 
widely read for fifty years after its publication, 14 and un- 
doubtedly deserves its place among the best of the minor 
novels collected in Harrison's "Novelist's Library." 

In the same useful repertory of eighteenth century fiction 
is the second of Mrs. Haywood's domestic novels, only less 

11 Monthly Review, V, 393, October, 1751. 

12 Letters from the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Everyman edi- 
tion, 392. 

13 Letters from the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Everyman edi- 
tion, 457. 

i* Notes and Queries, Series VIII, IX, 368. In Smollett's Ferdi- 
nand Count Fathom, Chap. XXXIX, Captain Miniken recommends 
as "modern authors that are worth reading" the Adventures of 
Loveill, Lady Frail, Bampfylde Moore Careio, Young Scarron, and 
Miss Betsy Thoughtless. See also A. L. Barbauld, Correspondence 
of Samuel Richardson (1804), IV, 55-6, and the Autobiography 
and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delaney (1861), First 
series, III, 79, 214. 



164 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

famous than its predecessor. Like her earlier effort, too, 
"The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy" (1753) con- 
tains a great number of letters quoted at full length, though 
the narrative is usually retarded rather than developed by 
these effusions. Yet all the letters, together with numerous 
digressions and inserted narratives, serve only to fill out 
three volumes in twelves. To readers whose taste for fic- 
tion has been cloyed by novels full of incident, movement, 
and compression, nothing could be more maddening than 
the leisurely footpace at which the story drags its slow 
length along. No wonder, then, that Scott recorded his ab- 
horrence of the "whole Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy tribe," 
while to Coleridge and Thackeray "Jemmy Jessamy stuff" 
was a favorite synonym for the emotional inane. 13 But 
Mrs. Haywood made no. pretense of interesting such readers. 
In the running fire of comment on the narrative contained 
in the lengthy chapter headings she confesses that her book 
"treats only on such matters as, it is highly probable, some 
readers will be apt to say might have been recited in a more 
laconick manner, if not totally omitted; but as there are 
others, the author imagines much the greater number, who 
may be of a different opinion, it is judged proper that the 
majority should be obliged." She has no hesitation either 
in recommending parts of the story that "cannot fail of 
giving an agreeable sensation to every honest and good- 
natured reader," or in sparing him a "digression of no 
consequence to the history" which may be "read or omitted 
at discretion." But those who love to "read in an easy- 
chair, either soon after dinner, or at night just going to 
rest," will 'find in the tale "such things as the author is 
pretty well convinced, from a long series of observations 
on the human mind, will afford more pleasure than offence. ' ' 

15 J. G. Loekhart, Life of Scott, Everyman edition, 34. Cole- 
ridge 's Letters, I 368. 



LATER FICTION: THE DOMESTIC NOVEL 165 

We have every reason to believe that what the novelist 
terms her "distressful narrative" succeeded in its appeal 
to the Martha Buskbodys of the generation, for even 
Goethe's Charlotte took a heartfelt interest in the fortunes 
of Miss Jenny. 16 It was indeed so far calculated to stir the 
sensibilities that a most touching turn in the lovers' affairs 
is labeled "not fit to be read by those who have tender 
hearts or watry eyes." But though popular with senti- 
mental readers, the new production was not wholly ap- 
proved by the critic of the "Monthly Review." 17 He finds 
the character and conduct of Miss Jessamy more interesting 
to the reader than those of Miss Thoughtless, but he does 
not fail to point out that the fable is equally deficient in 
plot and in natural incidents. The history, in fact, though 
it does not want a hero, having like ' ' The Fortunate Found- 
lings" double the usual number of protagonists, has a more 
uncommon want, that of a story. 

When the novel begins, Jemmy, son of a landed gentleman, and 
his cousin Jenny, daughter of a wealthy merchant, have long been 
affianced by their respective parents, but each is left an orphan 
before their union can be accomplished. Thereupon Jemmy leaves 
Oxford and comes up to London, where he and Jenny indulge 
innocently, but with keen relish, in the pleasures of the town. 

16 W. Scott, Old Mortality, Conclusion. Goethe's Werkc (E. 
Schmidt, Leipsig, 1910), III, 17. 

17 That the Monthly's review of Betsy Thoughtless, complaining of 
that novel's lack of "those entertaining introductory chapters, and 
digressive essays, which distinguish the works of a Fielding, a 
Smollett, or the author of Pompey the little," rankled in the fair 
novelist's memory is illustrated by a retort in her next work, Jemmy 
and Jenny Jessamy, III, Chap. XVIII, which ' ' contains none of 
those beautiful digressions, those remarks or reflections, which a cer- 
tain would-be critick pretends are so much distinguished in the writ- 
ings of his two favorite authors; yet it is to be hoped, will afford suffi- 
cient to please all those who are willing to be pleased. ' ' For the 
review of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy, see Monthly Review, VIII, 77. 



166 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

But the numerous instances of marital levity and unhappiness that 
come to their notice, make them decide to defer their marriage 
until they have gained more knowledge of the world and of their 
own sentiments. In pursuance of this delicate experiment each 
communicates to the other his observations on the jealousy, dis- 
content, and misery attending marriage. Jenny notes how Mrs. 
Marlove's partiality for her froward maid promotes discord in 
the family, and Jemmy is shocked to find the fair Liberia so fond 
of cards that " though at present a profest enemy to religion, she 
would be the greatest devotee imaginable, were she once persuaded 
there were gaming-tables in heaven." 

While the two lovers are thus engaged in a pleasant but inde- 
cisive daily round of amusement, Bellpine, a false friend, tries to 
turn Jemmy's affection to the fair musician, Miss Chit, in order 
to win Jenny for himself, but failing in that, circulates rumors 
of Jemmy's attachment to Miss Chit in hopes of alienating the 
lovers' regard. Emboldened by these reports of Jemmy's change 
of heart, Sir Robert Manley pays his court to Jenny on her way 
to Bath with her friends Miss Wingman and Lady Speck, but she 
gently repulses him and will believe nothing to Jemmy's disad- 
vantage. She is saved from the rudeness of Celandine by the in- 
trusion of the gallant's jealous mistress, who faints when foiled 
in her attempt to stab Jenny, but later relates the story of her 
ruin. This narrative is enough to disgust Lady Speck with her 
foppish admirer and to make her sensible of the merits of Mr. 
Lovegrove. In spite of Bellpine's industrious slander and in spite 
of seemingly incontrovertible proof of Jemmy's inconstancy, 
Jenny's faith in her lover remains unshaken. After tedious de- 
lays he finally rejoins her in London, but learning the full ex- 
tent of Bellpine's treachery, he wounds him seriously in a duel 
and is obliged to seek safety in France. After causing the lovers 
untold anxiety, the injured man recovers, and Jenny forestalls 
her lover's return by joining her friends on their wedding journey 
to Paris. There she finds her adored Jessamy now fully sensible 
of the merits of his treasure. He does not fail to press for a 
speedy termination to their delays, and Jenny is not unwilling to 
crown his love by a " happy catastrophe." 



LATER FICTION: THE DOMESTIC NOVEL 167 

Besides being unwarrantably expanded by a wealth of 
tedious detail, the novel has little merit as a piece of realism. 
The society of Lord Humphreys and Lady Specks was not 
that in which Eliza Haywood commonly moved, but she had 
lived upon the skirts of gay life long enough to imitate its 
appearances. Although she exhibits the diamond tassels 
sparkling in St. James's sun or the musk and amber that 
perfume the Mall, she never penetrates beyond externali- 
ties. The sentiments of her characters are as inflated as 
those of a Grandison and her picture of refined society as 
ridiculously stilted as Richardson's own. The scene 
whether in London, Bath, Oxford, or Paris, is described 
with more attention to specific detail than appeared in her 
early romances, but compared with the setting of "Hum- 
phrey Clinker" her glittering world appears pale and un- 
real. Mrs. Haywood had so framed her style to suit the 
short, rapid tale of passion that she never moved easily in 
the unwieldy novel form. Consequently her best narrative 
is to be found in the digressions, a chapter or two long, 
which are equivalent to little histories upon the old model. 
In them the progress of the action is unimpeded, com- 
pressed, and at times even sprightly. 

Recognizing, perhaps, her inability to cope with a plot of 
any extent, Mrs. Haywood adopted in her next novel a 
plan that permitted her to include a pot-pourri of short 
narratives, conversations, letters, reflections, and miscel- 
laneous material without damaging the comprehensive 
scheme of her story. Except that it lacks the consistent 
purpose of traducing the fair fame of her contemporaries, 18 

is A possible return to scandal-mongering should be noted. Let- 
ters from the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Everyman edition, 461. 
"You should have given me a key to the Invisible Spy, particularly 
to the catalogue of books in it. I know not whether the conjugal 
happiness of the D. of B. [Duke of Bedford] is intended as a com- 
pliment or an irony. ' ' 



168 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

"The Invisible Spy" (1755), written under the pseudonym 
of ' ' Exploralibus, ' ' is not essentially different in structure 
from the "Memoirs of a Certain Island." Love is still the 
theme of most of the anecdotes, no longer the gross passion 
that proves every woman at heart a rake, but rather a 
romantic tenderness that inclines lovely woman to stoop to 
folly. From the world of Lady Mellasin, Harriot Loveit, 
Mr. Trueworth, Lord Huntley, Miss Wingman, and other 
Georgian fashionables that filled the pages of "Betsy 
Thoughtless" and "Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy" we are 
transported again to the pale company of Celadon, Alinda, 
Placentia, Adario, Melanthe. A framework analogous to 
that in Le Sage 's "' Le Diable Boiteux ' ' takes the place of a 
plot. With a belt of invisibility and a recording tablet, 
Exploralibus is able to collect whatever is affecting, ludic- 
rous, vicious, or otherwise noteworthy in the conversation, 
actions, and manners of society. But the shadowy nature 
of the observer fails to give to the necessarily disconnected 
incidents even the slight unity possible in the adventures of 
a lap-dog, a cat, a mouse, a flea, or a guinea. The contents 
of a single section of "The Invisible Spy" is enough to 
show how little thought the author expended upon the 
sequence of the narrative. 

Book VI. Disguised as her husband, a villain carries off the 
young Matilda from a masquerade and ruins her. Alexis sends 
her away to the country and endeavors to forget her in the pleas- 
ures of the town. The contents of a lady's pocket: — a catalogue 
of imaginary books attributed to the initials of well known per- 
sons of quality; two letters, the first from Philetes to excuse his 
attendance, and the other from Damon making an appointment 
on the spot where the pocket was found. The foppish Miss 
Loiter is contrasted with the well trained children of Amadea. 
Narcissa, endeavoring to avoid marriage with the detested Oakly, 
is entrapped by the brother of her waiting-maid, who though only 
a common soldier, poses as Captain Pike. 



LATER FICTION : THE DOMESTIC NOVEL 169 

Though the novel exhibits some pictures of life which at 
the time were considered natural, 19 and some bits of satire 
rather extravagant than striking, its appearance was a 
tacit admission of the failing of the author's powers. Much 
experience of human nature Mrs. Haywood had undoubt- 
edly salvaged from her sixty years of buffeting about in 
the world, but so rapid and complete had been the develop- 
ment of prose fiction during her literary life that she was 
unable quite to comprehend the magnitude of the change. 
Her early training in romance writing had left too indelible 
a stamp upon her mind. She was never able to apprehend 
the full possibilities of the newer fiction, and her success 
as a novelist was only an evidence of her ability to create 
the image of a literary form without mastering its tech- 
nique. So at the maturity of her powers she lacked a ves- 
sel worthy of holding the stores of her experience, and first 
and last she never exceeded the permutations of sensation- 
alism possible in the short amatory romance. 

Long after Mrs. Haywood's death in 1756 came out the 
last novel presumably of her composing. "The History of 
Leonora Meadowson, ' ' published in two volumes in 1788, is 
but a recombination of materials already familiar to the 
reading public. Leonora rashly yields to the wishes of her 
first lover, weds another, and makes yet a second experi- 
ment in matrimony before she finds her true mate in the 
faithful Fleetwood, whom she had thought inconstant. 
Thus she is a near relation of the thoughtless Betsy, and 
possibly a descendant of the much married heroine of 
"Cleomelia." Another of Mrs. Haywood's earlier fictions, 
"The Agreeable Caledonian," had previously been used as 
the basis of a revision entitled "Clementina" (1768). The 
reviewer of "Leonora" in the "Critical," though aware of 

is Gentleman's Magazine, XXIV, 560, December 1754. 



170 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

the novel's shortcomings, still laments the passing of "the 
author of Betsy Thoughtless, our first guide in these de- 
lusive walks of fiction and fancy." 20 

"The spirit which dictated Betsy Thoughtless is evaporated; 
the fire of the author scarcely sparkles. Even two meagre volumes 
could not be filled, without a little History of Melinda Fairfax; — 
without the Tale of Cornaro and the Turk, — a tale told twice, in 
verse and prose, — a tale already often published, and as often 
read. Alas, poor author! we catch with regret thy parting 
breath." 

20 Critical Beview, LXV, 236, March 1788. 



CHAPTER VIII 



CONCLUSION 



Though Eliza Haywood produced nothing which the 
world has not willingly let die, yet at least the obituary of 
her works deserves to be recorded in the history of fiction. 
Of the many kinds of writing attempted by her during the 
thirty-six years of her literary adventuring none, consid- 
ered absolutely, is superior to the novels of her last period. 
"Betsy Thoughtless" contains at once her best developed 
characters, most extensive plot, and most nearly realistic 
setting. But before it was sent to press in 1751, Richard- 
son, Fielding, and Sarah Fielding had established them- 
selves in public favor, and Smollett was already known as 
their peer. Even in company with "David Simple" Eliza 
Haywood's most notable effort could not hope to shine. 
The value, then, of what is, all in all, her best work is 
greatly lessened by the obvious inferiority of her produc- 
tions to the masterpieces of the age. 

As a writer of amatory romances and scandal novels, on 
the contrary, Mrs. Haywood was surpassed by none of her 
contemporaries. The immense reputation that she acquired 
in her own day has deservedly vanished, for though her 
tales undoubtedly helped to frame the novel of manners, 
they were properly discarded as useless lumber when once 
the new species of writing had taken tangible form. Per- 
haps they are chiefly significant to the modern student, not 
as revealing now and then the first feeble stirrings of real- 
ism, but as showing the last throes of sensational extrava- 
gance. The very extreme to which writers of the Hay- 
woodian type carried breathless adventure, warm intrigue, 
and soul-thrilling passion exhausted the possibilities of 
17! 



172 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

their method and made progress possible only in a new 
direction. 

On the technical development of the modern novel the 
roman a clef can hardly have exercised a strong influence. 
Nor can the lampoons in Mrs. Haywood's anthologies of 
scandal be valued highly as attempts to characterize. To 
draw a portrait from the life is not to create a character, 
still less when the lines are distorted by satire. But the 
caricaturing of fine ladies and gentlemen cannot have been 
without effect as a corrective to the glittering atmosphere 
of courtly life that still permeated the pages of the short, 
debased romances. The characters of the scandal novels 
were still princes and courtiers, but their exploits were 
more licentious than the lowest pothouse amours of picaros 
and their doxies. The chivalrous conventions of the heroic 
romances had degenerated into the formalities of gallantry, 
the exalted modesty of romantic heroines had sunk into a 
fearful regard for shaky reputations, and the picture of 
genteel life was filled with scenes of fraud, violence, and 
vice. As the writers of anti-romances in the previous cen- 
tury had found a delicately malicious pleasure in exhibit- 
ing characters drawn from humble and rustic life perform- 
ing the ceremonies and professing the sentiments of a good 
breeding foreign to their social position, so the scandal- 
mongering authors like Mrs. Haywood helped to make ap- 
parent the hollowness of the aristocratic conventions even 
as practiced by the aristocracy and the incongruity of ap- 
plying exalted ideals derived from an outworn system of 
chivalry to everyday ladies and gentleman of the Georgian 
age. Undoubtedly the writers of romans a clef did not 
bargain for this effect, for they clung to their princes and 
court ladies till the last, leaving to more able pens the 
task of making heroes and heroines out of cobblers and 
kitchen wenches. But in representing people of quality as 
the "vilest and silliest part of the nation" Mrs. Haywood 



CONCLUSION 173 

and her ilk prepared their readers to welcome characters 
drawn from their own station in society, and paved the way 
for that "confounding of all ranks and making a jest of 
order," which, though deplored by Lady Mary Wortley 
Montagu, 1 was nevertheless a condition of progress toward 
realism. 

Quite apart from the slight merit of her writings, the 
very fact of Mrs. Haywood's long career as a woman of 
letters would entitle her to much consideration. About the 
middle of the seventeenth century women romancers, like 
women poets, were elegant triners, content to add the lustre 
of wit to their other charms. While Mme de La Fayette 
was gaining the plaudits of the urbane world for the deli- 
catesse of "La Princesse de Cleves" and the eccentric 
Duchess of Newcastle was employing her genius upon the 
fantastic, philosophical "Description of a New World, 
called the Blazing World" (1668), women of another stamp 
were beginning to write fiction. With the advent of Mme 
de Villedieu in France and her more celebrated contem- 
porary, Mrs. Behn, in England, literature became a pro- 
fession whereby women could command a livelihood. The 
pioneer romancieres were commonly adventuresses in life 
as in letters, needy widows like Mrs. Behn, Mme de Gomez, 
and Mrs. Mary Davys, or cast mistresses like Mme de Vil- 
ledieu, Mile de La Force, and Mrs. Manley, who cultivated 
Minerva when Venus proved unpropitious. But although 
the divine Astraea won recognition from easy-going John 
Dryden and approbation from the profligate wits of 
Charles IPs court, her memory was little honored by the 
coterie about Pope and Swift. When even the lofty ideals 
and trenchant style of Mary Astell served as a target for the 
ridicule of Mr. Bickerstaff 's friends, 2 it was not remarkable 

i Letters from the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Everyman edi- 
tion, 422. 

2 Tatler, Nos. 32, 59, 63. 



174 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

that such authoresses as Mrs. Mauley and Mrs. Haywood 
should be dismissed from notice as infamous scribbling 
women. 3 Inded the position of women novelists was any- 
thing but assured at the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. They had to support the disfavor and even the 
malign attacks of established men of letters who scouted 
the pretensions of the inelegant to literary fame, and fol- 
lowing the lead of Boileau, discredited the romance as 
absurd and unclassical. Moreover, the moral soundness of 
fictitious fables was questioned by scrupulous readers, and 
the amatory tales turned out in profusion by most of the 
female romancers were not calculated to reassure the pious, 
even though prefaced by assertions of didactic aim and 
tagged with an exemplary moral. Nevertheless the tribe of 
women who earned their living chiefly by the proceeds of 
their pens rapidly increased. 4 

Mrs. Haywood, as we have seen, looked to the booksellers 
for support when her husband disclaimed her. Of all the 
amazons of prose fiction who in a long struggle with neglect 
and disparagement demonstrated the fitness of their sex to 
follow the novelist's calling, none was more persistent, more 
adaptable, or more closely identified with the development 
of the novel than she. Mrs. Behn and Mrs. Manley must 
be given credit as pioneers in fiction, but much of their best 
work was written for the stage. Eliza Haywood, on the 

s See also Horace Walpole, Letters, edited by Mrs. P. Toynbee, 
I, 354. 

* Only rarely did women like Mary Astell or Mrs. Elizabeth Eowe 
become authors to demonstrate a theory or to inculcate principles 
of piety, and still more seldom did such creditable motives lead to 
the writing of fiction. Perhaps the only one of the romancieres not 
dependent in some measure upon the sale of her works was Mrs. 
Penelope Aubin, who in the Preface to Charlotta Bit, Pont (dedicated 
to Mrs. Eowe) declares, "My Design in writing, is to employ my 
leisure Hours to some Advantage to my self and others ... I do 
not write for Bread." 



CONCLUSION 175 

other hand, added little to her reputation by her few dra- 
matic performances. She achieved her successes first and 
last as a writer of romances and novels, and unlike Mrs. 
Aubin and her other rivals continued to maintain her posi- 
tion as a popular author over a considerable period of time. 
During the thirty-six years of her activity the romances of 
Defoe and of Mrs. Jane Barker gave place to the novels of 
Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett, yet the "female vet- 
eran ' ' kept abreast of the changes in the taste of her public 
and even contributed slightly to produce them. Nor was 
her progress accomplished without numerous difficulties 
and discouragements. In spite of all, however, Mrs. Hay- 
wood remained devoted to her calling and was still scrib- 
bling when the great Dr. Johnson crowned the brows of 
Mrs. Charlotte Lennox to celebrate the publication of ' ' The 
Life of Harriot Stuart" (1750). After such recognition 
a career in letters was open to women without reproach. 
Though unlaureled by any lexicographer, and despised by 
the virtuous Mrs. Lennox, 5 Mrs. Haywood, nevertheless, 
had done yeoman service in preparing the way for modest 
Fanny Burney and quiet Jane Austen. Moreover she was 
the only one of the old tribe of romancieres who survived 
to join the new school of lady novelists, and in her tabloid 
fiction rather than in the criminal biography, or the voyage 
imaginaire, or the periodical essay, may best be studied the 
obscure but essential link between the "voluminous ex- 
travagances" of the "Parthenissa" kind and the hardly 
less long-winded histories of "Pamela" and "Clarissa." 

5 The salacious landlady in Mrs. Lennox 's Henrietta tries to dis- 
courage the heroine from reading Joseph Andrews by recommending 
Mrs. Haywood's works, " . . . 'there is Mrs. Haywood's Novels, did 
you ever read them? Oh! they are the finest love-sick, passionate 
stories; I assure you, you'll like them vastly: pray take a volume 
of Haywood upon my recommendation.' — 'Excuse me,' said Hen- 
rietta," etc. The Novelist's Magazine (Harrison), XXIII, 14. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

A LIST OF MRS. HAYWOOD'S WRITINGS 

I. Collected Works 

A. The Works of Mrs. Eliza Haywood; Consisting of Novels, 

Letters, Poems, and Plays. ... In Four Volumes. For D. 
Browne Junr., and S. Chapman. 1724. Svo. 4 vols. 
Vol. I. Love in Excess, ed. 5; Vol. II. The British Recluse, ed. 

2, The Injur 'd Husband, ed. 2, The Fair Captive, ed. 2 (ed. 1, 
Chicago) ; Vol. III. Idalia, ed. 2, Letters from a Lady of 
Quality to a Chevalier, ed. 2; Vol. IV. Lasselia, ed. 2, The 
Rash Resolve, ed. 2, A Wife to be Lett, Poems on Several 
Occasions. 

B. M. (12611. cc. 20). University of Chicago. Daily 
Journal, 12 Aug. 1723, 3 vols.; 31 Jan. 1724, 4 vols. 

B. Secret Histories, Novels and Poems. In Four Volumes. 

Written by Mrs. Eliza Haywood. . . . For D. Browne, Jun., 
and S. Chapman. 1725. 12mo. 4 vols. 

Daily Journal, 23 Dec. 1724, "just publish 'd." 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, 
Jun., and S. Chapman. 1725. 12mo. 4 vols. 
Vol. I. Love in Excess, ed. 6; Vol. II. The British Recluse, ed. 

3, The Injur 'd Husband, ed. 3, Poems on Several Occasions, ed. 
2; Vol. III. Idalia, ed. 3, The Surprise, ed. 2, The Fatal Secret, 
ed. 3, Fantomina; Vol. IV. The Rash Resolve, ed. 3, The Mas- 
queraders, Lasselia, The Force of Nature. 

B. M. (12612. ee. 8). Yale. Daily Post, 6 Aug. 1725, 

"lately published." 
[Another issue of Vols. II, III.] For D. Browne, jun., 
and S. Chapman. 1725. 12mo. 2 vols. 
Vol. I is a duplicate of Vol. Ill, Vol. II of Vol. II of the 
preceding issue. 

B. M. (12614. c. 14). 
[Another edition.] The Third Edition. For A. Bettes- 
176 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 177 

worth and C. Hitch, D. Browne, T. Astley, and T. Green. 
1732. 12mo. 4 vols. 

B. M. (012612. df. 48). 
[Another edition.] The Fourth Edition. For R. Ware, S. 
Birt, D. Browne, C. Hitch, S. Austen. 1742. 12mo. 4 vols. 

B. M. (12614. c. 13). 

C. Secret Histories, Novels, &c. Written or translated by Mrs. 

Eliza Haywood. Printed since the Publication of the four 
Volumes of her Works. For D. Browne. 2 vols. 
Vol. I. The Distrest Orphan, The City Jilt, The Double Mar- 
riage, Letters from the Palace of Fame, The Lady's Philoso- 
pher's Stone; Vol. II. Memoirs of the Baron de Brosse, 2 
parts, Bath-Intrigues, The Masqueraders, Part II, The Per- 
plex 'd Dutchess. 

Daily Post, 2 Nov. 1727. 

D. Haywood's (Mrs.) Select Collection of Novels and Histories. 

Written by the most celebrated Authors, in several lan- 
guages. All new translated from the originals, by several 
hands. London. 1729. 12mo. 6 vols. 
Sir George Cockrane, Catalogue of the Library at Abbots- 
ford, 1838, Maitland Club, Vol. XLV, p. 139. I have not 
found a copy of this work. 

II. Single Works 
1. Adventures of Eovaai, Princess of Ijaveo. A Pre-Adamitical 
History. Interspersed with a great Number of remarkable 
Occurrences, which happened, and may again happen, to 
several Empires, Kingdoms, Republicks, and particular 
Great Men. With some Account of the Religion, Laws, 
Customs, and Policies of tbose Times. Written originally 
in the Language of Nature, (of later Years but little under- 
stood.) First translated into Chinese, at the command of 
the Emperor, by a Cabal of Seventy Philosophers; and now 
retranslated into English, by the Son of a Mandarin, resid- 
ing in London. For S. Baker. 1736. 12mo. 
Dedicated to the Duchess Dowager of Marlborough. 

Bodl. (250. q. 232). Gentleman's Magazine, July 1736. 
[Another issue.] The Unfortunate Princess, or, the Am- 
13 



178 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

bitious Statesman. Containing the Life and Surprizing 
Adventures of the Princess of Ijaveo. Interspers'd with 
several curious and entertaining Novels. By Mrs. Eliza 
Haywood. For T. Wright. 1741. 12mo. 

B. M. (12604. bb. 20). Columbia. Gentleman's Maga- 
zine, Nov. 1740. 

2. The Agreeable Caledonian : or, Memoirs of Signiora di Mo- 

rella, a Roman Lady, Who made her Escape from a Mon- 
astery at Viterbo, for the Love of a Scots Nobleman. In- 
termix'd with many other Entertaining little Histories and 
Adventures which presented themselves to her in the Course 
of her Travels, etc. For R. King: And sold by W. Mead- 
ows, T. Green, J. Stone, J. Jackson, and J. Watson. 1728, 
1729. 8vo. 

The Dedication to Lady Elizabeth Henley is signed Eliza 
Haywood. 

Bodl. (Godw. Pamph. 2121/6, 7). Peabody Institute, 

Baltimore. Part I. Daily Post, 21 June 1728. Part II. 

Daily Journal, 10 Jan. 1729. 
[Another issue.] Clementina; or the History of an Italian 
Lady, who made her Escape from a Monastery, for the Love 
of a Scots Nobleman. For Noble. 1768. 12mo. 

Monthly Eeview, May 1768. 

3. The Arragonian Queen. A Secret History. For J. Roberts. 

Dedicated to Lady Frances Lumley. 

Daily Journal, 11 Aug. 1724. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For J. Roberts. 
1724. 8vo. 

University of Chicago. Daily Post, 16 Oct. 1724. 
[Another edition?] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, 
and sold by E. Nutt. 

Daily Post, 4 Jan. 1727, ' ' lately published, written by Mrs. 

Eliza Haywood." 

4. Bath-Intrigues: in four Letters to a Friend in London. . . . 

For J. Roberts. 1725. 8vo. 

Letters signed J. B. Included in the two volumes of Mrs. 
Haywood's additional Works, 1727. 

B. M. (1080. i. 42). Daily Post, 16 Oct. 1724. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 179 

[Another edition.] The Second Edition? 

[Another edition.] The Third Edition. For J. Roberts. 

1725. 

Daily Post, 5 March 1725. 
5. La Belle Assemblee : or, the Adventures of Six Days. Being 
a Curious Collection of Remarkable Incidents which hap- 
pen'd to some of the First Quality in France. Written in 
French for the Entertainment of the King, and dedicated 
to him By Madam de Gomez. Translated into English. 
Compleat, in Three Parts. For D. Browne, jun., and S. 
Chapman. 

From the French of Madeleine Angelique Poisson de Gomez. 
Part I. Daily Journal, 26 Aug. 1724. Part II. Daily Jour- 
nal, 26 Oct. 1724. Part III. Daily Post, 9 Dec. 1724. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. Compleat, in Three 
Parts. For D. Browne junr.; and S. Chapman. 1725. 
8vo. 3 vols. 

B. M. (12511. f. 25). Daily Journal, 21 June 1725. 
[Another volume.] The 2d and last volume. For D. 
Browne, S. Chapman, and W. Bickerton. 
The three parts first issued comprise Vol. I, ed. 2. 

Daily Journal, 27 July 1726. 
[Another edition.] La Belle Assemblee; or, the Adventures 
of Twelve Days. . . . The Second Edition, Adorn'd with 
Copper-Plates. For D. Browne, W. Bickerton, and W. 
Pote. 1728. 12mo. 2 vols. 

B. M. (635. a. 27, 28). Daily Post, 4 March 1728. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, 
W. Bickerton, T. Astley, and F. Cogan. 1735. 12mo. 4 
vols. 

B. M. (12512. e. 12), Vol. IV only. 
[Another edition.] The Third Edition? 
[Another edition.] The Fourth Edition. For J. Brother- 
ton, J. Hazard, W. Meadows, T. Cox, W. Hinchcliffe, D. 
Browne, W. Bickerton, T. Astley, S. Austen, L. Gilliver, R. 
Willock, and F. Cogan. 1736. 12mo. 4 vols. 
B. M. (12512. c, 12), Vols. I-III only. 



180 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOI' 

[Another edition.] The Fifth Edition. For D. Browne, 
etc. 1743. 12mo. 4 vols. 

Boston Public Library. 
[Another edition.] The Sixth Edition. For D. Browne, 
J. Brotherton, W. Meadows, R. Ware, H. Lintot, T. Cox, T. 
Astley, S. Austen, J. Hodges, and E. Comins. 1749. 12rno. 
4 vols. 

Brown University. 
[Another edition.] The Seventh Edition. 1754. 12mo. 
4 vols. 

Malkan Catalogue. 
[Another edition.] The Eighth Edition. For H. Wood- 
fall, W. Strahan, J. Rivington, R. Horsfield, G. Keith, W. 
Nichol, C. and R. Ware, M. Richardson, J. and T. Pote, and 
T. Burnet. 1765. 12mo. 4 vols. 

B. M. (12330. f. 17). Boston Public Library. 
- 6. The British Recluse : or, the Secret History of Cleomira, Sup- 
posed Dead. A Novel. . . . By Mrs. Eliza Haywood, Au- 
thor of Love in Excess; or, the Fatal Enquiry. For D. 
Browne, Jun ; W. Chetwood and J. Woodman ; and S. Chap- 
man. 1722. 8vo. 

Boston Public Library. Daily Post, 16 April 1722. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, 
Jun., W. Chetwood and J. Woodman, and S. Chapman. 
1722. 8vo. 

B. M. (635. f. 11/4). Daily Courant, 24 Dec. 1722. 

The third and fourth editions are a part of Secret His- 
tories, etc., 1725, 1732. 
[Another edition.] The British Recluse. . . . And The In- 
jur'd Husband : Or, The Mistaken Resentment. Two Novels. 
Written by Mrs. Eliza Haywood. . . . The Third Edition. 
Dublin : For J. Watts. 1724. 8vo. 

B. M. (12611. f. 10). 
7. The City Jilt: or, the Alderman turn'd Beau. A Secret His- 
tory. . . . For J. Roberts. 1726. 

Included in the two volumes of Mrs. Haywood's additional 
Works, 1727. 

Daily Journal, 24 June 1726. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 181 

[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For J. Roberts. 
1726. 8vo. 

B. M. (012611. e. 13). Daily Post, 30 Sept. 1726, "a 

new edition." 
[A pirated edition?] Printed by T. Bailey, at the Ship and 
Crown, Leadenhall-street, where Tradesmans Bills are 
printed at the Letter-press, and off Copper-plates, *** 
Where Maredant's Antiscorbutic Drops are Sold at Six 
Shillings the Bottle, which Cures the most inveterate Scurvy, 
Leprosy, &c. [n. d.] 

B. M. (12611. ee. 3). 
Clementina, see The Agreeable Caledonian. 

8. Cleomelia: or, the Generous Mistress. Being the Secret His- 

tory of a Lady Lately arriv'd from Bengali, A Kingdom 
in the East-Indies. By Mrs. Eliza Haywood. To which is 
added, I. The Lucky Rape : Or, Fate the Best Disposer. II. 
The Capricious Lover : Or, No Trifling with a Woman. . . . 
For J. Millan, and sold by J. Roberts, T. Astley, W. Mead- 
ows, J. Mackeuen, H. Northcock. 1727. 8vo. 

Daily Post, 5 Dec. 1726. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For J. Millan, 
and sold by J. Roberts, H. Northcock. 1727. 8vo. 

Bodl. (Godw. Pamph. 1308). 

9. Dalinda: or, the Double Marriage. Being the Genuine His- 

tory of a very Recent, and Interesting Adventure. Ad- 
dressed to all the Young and Gay of both Sexes. . . . For 
C. Corbett, and G. Woodfall. 1749. 12mo. 
Probably by Mrs. Haywood. 

B. M. (012611. e. 41). Gentleman's Magazine, June 
1749. 
10. The Disguis'd Prince: or, the Beautiful Parisian. A True 
History, Translated from the French. For T. Corbett, and 
Sold by J. Roberts. 1728, 1729. 8vo. 

The Dedication to Lady Lombe is signed Eliza Haywood. 
From the French of the Sieur de Prechac or Mme de Villedieu. 
B. M. (12511. h. 5), Part I only. Harvard, 2 parts. 
Part I, Daily Post, 16 Aug. 1728. Part II, Daily Jour- 
nal, 14 May 1729. 



182 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For T. Corbett, 
and sold by J. Roberts. 1733. 8vo. 
Bodl. (Godw. Pamph. 1231/4). 

11. The Distress'd Orphan, or Love in a Mad-House. 1726? 

[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For J. Roberts. 
1726. 8vo. 

A second edition was advertised for D. Browne as a part of 
Mrs. Haywood's additional Works, Daily Post, 4 Jan. 1727. 

University of Chicago. 
[Another edition.] The Third Edition. For J. Roberts. 
1726. 8vo. 

B. M. (12611. f. 14). 
[A revision.] Love in a Madhouse; or, the History of Eliza 
Hartley. The Distressed Orphan. Written by herself after 
her happy Union with the Colonel. For T. Sabine, [n. d.] 
8vo. 

1770? (B. M. Catalogue). 1810 (Miss Morgan). 
B. M. (12403. aa. 34/2). 

12. The Double Marriage: or, the Fatal Release. A True Secret 

History. For J. Roberts. 1726. 8vo. 

Included in the two volumes of Mrs. Haywood's additional 
Works, 1727. 

University of Chicago. Daily Journal, 5 Aug. 1726. 

13. The Dumb Projector: Being a Surprizing Account of a Txip 

to Holland made by Mr. Duncan Campbell. With the 
Manner of his Reception and Behaviour there. As also the 
various and diverting Occurrences that happened on his De- 
parture. For W. Ellis, J. Roberts, Mrs. Billingsly, A. Dod, 
and J. Fox. 1725. 8vo. 

Written as a letter, signed Justicia. 

B. M. (G. 13739/2). Copy owned by Professor Trent. 

Daily Journal, 10 May 1725. 

14. L'Entretien des Beaux Esprits. Being the Sequel to La Belle 

Assemblee. Containing the following Novels. . . . Written 
for the Entertainment of the French Court, by Madam de 
Gomez, Author of La Belle Assemblee. For F. Cogan, and 
J. Nourse. 1734. 12mo. 2 vols. 
The Dedication to "the High Puissant and most noble 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 183 

Prince," Charles Seymour, Duke of Somerset, is signed Eliza 
Haywood. From the French of Madeleine Angelique Poisson 
de Gomez. 

B. M. (12512. c. 13). 
15. Epistles for the Ladies. . . . For T. Gardner. 1749, 1750. 
8vo. 2 vols. 

B. M. (8416. dd. 34). Columbia. Gentleman's Maga- 
zine, Nov. 1748, &e. 
[Another edition.] A New Edition. For T. Gardner. 

Advertised in The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jes- 
samy, 1753. 
,\ [Another edition.] Epistles for Ladies. A New Edition. 
For H. Gardner. 1776. 12mo. 2 vols. 
Yale. 
'16. The Fair Captive: a Tragedy. As it is Acted By His 
Majesty's Servants. For T. Jauney and H. Cole. 1721. 8vo. 
Dedicated to Lord Viscount Gage. 

B. M. (162. h. 18). Columbia. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, 
and S. Chapman. 1724. 

Included with separate title-page and imprint in Works, 
1724. 

17. The Fair Hebrew: or, a True, but Secret History of Two 

Jewish Ladies, Who lately resided in London. For J. 
Brindley, W. Meadows and J. Walthoe, A. Bettesworth, T. 
Astley, T. Worral, J. Lewis, J. Penn, and R. Walker. 1729. 
8vo. 

Advertised as by Mrs. Haywood in Frederick, Duke of Bruns- 

wick-Lunenburgh, 1729. 

B. M. (635 f. 11/8). Daily Post, 29 Jan. 1729. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For J. Brindley, 
W. Meadows and J. Walthoe, A. Bettesworth, T. Astley, T. 
Worral, J. Lewis, J. Penn and R. Walker. 1729. 8vo. 
B. M. (12614. d. 8). 

18. Fantomina: or, Love in a Maze. Being a Secret History of 

an Amour between two Persons of Condition. By Mrs. 
Eliza Haywood. For D. Browne jun, and S. Chapman. 
1725. 

Included in the various editions of Secret Histories, etc. 



184 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

19. Fatal Fondness: or, Love its own Opposer. (Being the Se- 

quel of The Unequal Conflict.) A Novel. By Mrs. Eliza 
Haywood. . . . For J. Walthoe, and J. Crokatt. 1725. 8vo. 

Sir John Soane's Museum. University of Chicago. Daily 

Post, 19 May 1725. 

20. The Fatal Secret: or, Constancy in Distress. By the Author 

of the Masqueraders ; or, Fatal Curiosity. For J. Roberts. 
1724. 
Dedicated to (Sir) William Yonge. 

Daily Journal, 16 May 1724. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For J. Roberts. 
1724. 8vo. 

University of Chicago. The third edition with separate 

title-page and imprint is a part of Secret Histories, etc., 

1725. 
The Female Dunciad, see Irish Artifice. 

21. The Female Spectator. For T. Gardner. 1745. 8vo. 4 vols. 

The monthly parts, April, 1744, to May, 1746 (two months 
omitted), bound up with a general title-page, but each part re- 
tains its separate title-page and imprint. Books I-VI, 1744; 
VII-XX, 1745; XXI-XXIV, 1746. Vol. I dedicated to the 
Duchess of Leeds, Vol. II to the Duchess of Bedford, Vol. Ill 
to the Duchess of Queensberry and Dover, Vol. IV to the 
Duchess Dowager of Manchester. 

B. M. (94. c. 12-15). 
[Another edition.] The Third Edition. For George and 
Alexander Ewing. Dublin. 1747. 12mo. 4 vols. 

Columbia. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For T. Gardner. 
1748. 12mo. 4 vols. 

B. M. (P. P. 5251. ga). Harvard. 
[Another edition.] The Third Edition. For T. Gardner. 
1750. 12mo. 4 vols. 

Harvard. 
[Another edition.] The Fourth Edition? 
[Another edition.] The Fifth Edition. For T. Gardner. 
1755. 12mo. 4 vols. 

Boston Public Library, Vol. I only. 
[Another edition.] The Sixth Edition? 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 185 

[Another edition.] The Seventh Edition. For T. Gardner. 
1771. 12mo. 4 vols. 

B. M. (P. P. 5251. g). Boston Public Library. 
[A French translation.] La Nouvelle Speetatrice. Paris. 
1751. 4 parts in 2 vols. 12mo. 

"Traduction abregee avec gout," by Jean-Arnold Trochereau 
de la Berliere. 

P. Larousse, Grand Dictionnaire Universel, 1873. 

22. The Force of Nature : or, the Lucky Disappointment : A Novel. 

By Mrs. Eliza Haywood. 

Included in the various editions of Secret Histories, etc. 

23. The Fortunate Foundlings: Being the Genuine History of 

Colonel M rs, and his Sister, Madam du P y, the Is- 
sue of the Hon. Ch — es M rs, Son of the late Duke of 

R — L — D. Containing Many wonderful Accidents that be- 
fel them in their Travels, and interspersed with the Charac- 
ters and Adventures of Several Persons of Condition, in the 
most polite Courts of Europe. The Whole calculated for 
the Entertainment and Improvement of the Youth of both 
Sexes. For T. Gardner. 1744. 12mo. 

B. M. (12614. eee. 16). Gentleman's Magazine, Feb. 

1744. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition? 
[Another edition.] The Third Edition. For T. Gardner. 
1748. 12mo. 

Yale. 

24. Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburgh. A Tragedy. 

As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. 
. . . By Mrs. Eliza Haywood. For W. Mears, and J. 
Brindley. 1729. 8vo. 
Dedicated to Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales. 

B. M. (643. e. 1). Boston Public Library. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For W. Mears, 
and J. Brindley. 1729. 8vo. 

B. M. (162. h. 19). Yale. 

25. The Fruitless Enquiry. Being a Collection of Several Enter- 

taining Histories and Occurrences, Which Fell under the 
Observation of a Lady in her Search after Happiness. By 



186 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Mrs. Eliza Haywood, Author of Love in Excess. . . . For 
J. Stephens. 1727. 12mo. 
Dedicated to Lady Elizabeth Germain. 

Bodl. (8vo. B. 433. Line). Peabody Institute. Daily 

Post, 24 Feb. 1727. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. By the Author 
of the History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless. For T. Lowndes. 
1767. 12mo. 

B. M. (1208. e. 31). Yale. 
[An abridgment.] A Collection of Novels, selected and re- 
vised by Mrs. Griffith. For G. Kearsly. 1777. 12mo. 2 
vols. 
The Fruitless Enquiry occupies pp. 159-267 of Vol. II. 

B. M. (12614. cc. 14). Boston Public Library. 

26. The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy. In Three Vol- 

umes. By the Author of Betsy Thoughtless. For T. Gard- 
ner. 1753. 12mo. 3 vols. 

B. M. (12611. b. 23). Yale. Gentleman's Magazine, 

Dec. 1752. 
[Another edition.] Dublin: For R. Main. 1753. 12mo. 
3 vols. 

B. M. (12611. b. 23), Vols. II and III only. 
[Another edition.] For Harrison and Co. 1785. 8vo. 3 
vols. 
In Vol. XVII of The Novelist's Magazine. 

B. M. (1207. c. 7). New York Public Library. 

27. The History of Leonora Meadowson. By the Author of Betsy 

Thoughtless. For Noble. 1788. 12mo. 2 vols. 
Halkett and Laing. Critical Eeview, March 1788. 

28. The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, In Four Volumes. 

For T. Gardner. 1751. 12mo. 4 vols. 

B. M. (recently acquired from the Huth Sale, Part III). 

New York Public Library. Gentleman's Magazine, Oct. 

1751. 
[Another edition.] Dublin. 1751. 12mo. 4 vols, in 2. 

J. Tregaskis Catalogue. 
[Another edition.] Dublin: Printed by OH. Nelson. 1765. 
12mo. 4 vols, in 2. 

Yale. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 187 

[Another edition.] The Fourth Edition. For L. Gardner. 
1768. 12mo. 4 vols, in 2. 

South Kensington Museum. Columbia. 
[Another edition.] For Harrison and Co. 1783. 8vo. 4 
vols. 
In Vol. XIII of The Novelist's Magazine. 

B. M. (1207. c. 12). New York Public Library. 

29. The Husband. In Answer to The Wife. For T. Gardner. 

1756. 12mo. 

B. M. (836. c. 6). Yale. 

30. Idalia: or, the Unfortunate Mistress. A Novel. Written by 

Mrs. Eliza Haywood. For D. Browne junr; W. Chet- 
wood; and S. Chapman. 1723. 8vo. 

B. M. (12614. d. 10). Daily Journal, 24 April 1723. 
Parts II and III which compleats the whole, Daily Jour- 
nal, 21 June 1723. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, 
junr; W. Chetwood; and S. Chapman. 1723. 8vo. 

Advertised in The Eash Resolve, 1724. Included with 
separate title-page and imprint in Mrs. Haywood's Works, 
1724. The third edition is a part of Secret Histories, 
etc., 1725. 

31. The Injur'd Husband : or, the Mistaken Resentment. A Novel. 

Written by Mrs. Eliza Haywood. . . . For D. Browne, W. 
Chetwood and J. Woodman, and S. Chapman. 1723. 8vo. 
Dedicated to Lady Howe. 

B. M. (recently acquired from the Huth Sale, Part III). 

Daily Courant, 24 Dec. 1722. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, 
W. Chetwood and J. Woodman, and S. Chapman. 1723. 
8vo. 

Advertised in The Rash Resolve, 1724. Included with 

separate title-page and imprint in Mrs. Haywood 's Works, 

1724. The third edition is a part of Secret Histories, 

etc., 1725. 
[Another edition.] The Third Edition. Dublin: For J. 
Watts. 1724. 8vo. 

B. M. (12611. f. 10). See The British Recluse. 



188 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MBS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

32. The Invisible Spy. By Exploralibus. For T. Gardner. 1755. 

12mo. 4 vols. 1 

B. M. (12612. d. 14). Brown University. Gentleman's 

Magazine, Nov. 1754. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For T. Gardner. 
1759. 12mo. 2 vols. 

Bodl. (Hope 8vo. 535, 6). Yale. 
[Another edition.] Dublin. 1766. 12mo. 2 vols. 

B. M. (12614. ff. 21). 
[Another edition.] By Explorabilis. A New Edition. For 
H. Gardner. 1773. 12mo. 2 vols. 

Yale. 
[Another edition.] For Harrison and Co. 1788. 8vo. 2 
vols. 
In Vol. XXIII of The Novelist's Magazine. 

B. M. (1207. c. 3/3). New York Public Library. 

33. Irish Artifice; or, The History of Clarina. A Novel. By 

Mrs. Eliza Haywood. 

A part of The Female Dunciad, For T. Bead, 1728, 8vo. 
B. M. (T. 857/2). 

34. The Lady's Philosopher's Stone; or, The Caprices of Love 

and Destiny: an Historical Novel. Written in French by 
M. L'Abbe de Castera; And now Translated into English. 
For D. Browne, Junr. ; and S. Chapman. 1725. 8vo. 
From the French of Louis Adrien Duperron de Castera. Dedi- 
cated to Lord Herbert. Included in the two volumes of Mrs. 
Haywood's additional Works, 1727. 

B. M. (12614. dd. 19). Daily Post, 22 Jan. 1725. 

35. Lasselia: or, the Self-Abandon'd. A Novel. By Mrs. Eliza 

Haywood. For D. Browne, jun., and S. Chapman. 

Dedicated to the Earl of Suffolk and Bindon. 

Daily Journal, 30 Oct. 1723. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne 
junr., and S. Chapman. 1724. 8vo. 

Included with separate title-page and imprint in Mrs. Hay- 

iA3 vol. edition, 1755, entered in a catalogue of John Orr, Edin- 
burgh, (Autumn, 1914). 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 189 

wood's Works, 1724. The third edition is a part of Secret 
Histories, etc., 1725. 

B. M. (12613. c. 26/1). 

36. A Letter from H G g, Esq. One of the Gentlemen of 

the Bedchamber to the Young Chevalier, and the only Per- 
son of his own Retinue that attended him from Avignon, in 
his late Journey through Germany, and elsewhere; Contain- 
ing Many remarkable and affecting Occurrences which hap- 
pened to the P during the course of his mysterious 

Progress. To a Particular Friend. . . . Printed, and sold 
at the Royal-Exchange, Temple-Bar, Charing Cross, and all 
the Pamphlet-Shops of London and Westminster. 1750. 
8vo. 

A. Lang, History of English Literature (1912), p. 458, at- 
tributes this work to Mrs. Haywood. 

B. M. (10806. b. 20). Monthly Review, Jan. 1750. 
[A French translation.] LettredeH. ... G. ... G Ecuyer, 
un des Gentilshommes de la Chambre du jeune Chevalier 
de S. George & la seule personne de sa Cour qui Fait ac- 
compagne d' Avignon dans son voyage en Allemagne & 
autres Lieux. Contenant Plusieurs aventures touchantes & 
remarquables qui sont arrivees a. ce Prince pendant le cours 
de son voyage secret. A un Ami particulier. Traduit de 
FAnglois par M. l'Abbe * * * A Londres. 1757. 
B. M. (10804. a. 16). 

37. Letters from a Lady of Quality to a Chevalier. Translated 

from the French. By Mrs. Haywood. For W. Chetwood. 
1721. 8vo. 

With "A Discourse concerning Writings Of this Nature. By 
Way of Essay." From the French of Edme Boursault. 
Published by subscription. 

Columbia. Daily Post, 26 Dec. 1720. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne 
and S. Chapman. 1724. 8vo. 

Included with separate title-page and imprint in Mrs. 
Haywood's Works, 1724. 

38. Letters from the Palace of Fame. Written by a First Minis- 

ter in The Regions of Air, to an Inhabitant of this World. 



190 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Translated from an Arabian Manuscript. . . . For J. 

Roberts. 1727. 8vo. 

Included in the two additional volumes of Mrs. Haywood's 
Works, 1727. 

B. M. (635. f. 11/7), incomplete, 24 pp. only. A com- 
plete copy is owned by Professor Trent. Daily Post, 30 
Sept. 1726. 

39. The Life of Madam de Villesacbe. Written by a Lady, who 

was an Eye-witness of the greater part of her Adventures, 
and faithfully Translated from her French Manuscript. 
By Mrs. Eliza Haywood. . . . For W. Feales; and sold by 
J. Roberts. 1727. 8vo. 
Dedicated to Mrs. Heathcote. 

B. M. (12331. bbb. 42/2). Daily Post, 26 April 1727. 

40. Life's Progress through the Passions: or, the Adventures of 

Natura. By the Author of The Fortunate Foundlings. 
For T. Gardner. 1748. 12mo. 

B. M. (12614. c. 19). Yale. Gentleman's Magazine, 

April 1748. 

41. Love in Excess; or, the Fatal Enquiry. Part I. 

Issued probably toward the end of 1719 for Chetwood and 

Eoberts, but I have found no advertisement of it. 

Love in Excess; or, the Fatal Enquiry, A Novel, Part the 

Second. By Mrs. Haywood. For W. Chetwood, and Sold 

by J. Roberts, [n. d.] 8vo. 

Prefixed is a poem by Richard Savage, 2 pp. 

Pickering and Chatto, Catalogue of English Prose Litera- 
ture. 

Love in Excess ; or, the Fatal Enquiry. Part III. By Mrs. 

Haywood. For W. Chetwood, and J. Roberts. 2 s. 
Daily Post, 26 Feb. 1720. 

[Another edition.] The Second Edition? 

[Another edition.] The Third Edition. For W. Chetwood. 

1721. 

Daily Post, 29 May, 1721. 

[Another edition.] The Fourth Edition. For D. Browne, 

W. Chetwood, and S. Chapman. 1722. 
Post Boy, 22-24 Feb. 1722. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 191 

[Another edition.] The Fifth Edition. For D. Browne, 
jun., and S. Chapman. 1724. 

Included with separate title-page and imprint in Mrs. Hay- 
wood's Works, 1724. 

Daily Journal, 13 April 1724. 
[Another edition.] First Edition. Dublin: For J. Watts. 
1724. 12mo. 

With The British Recluse and The Injur 'd Husband, 2 vols. 
[Another edition.] The Sixth Edition. For D. Browne, 
jun., and S. Chapman. 1725. 

Included in Secret Histories, etc., 1725. 
Columbia. 

42. Love in its Variety: Being a Collection of Select Novels. 

Written in Spanish by Signior Michel Ban Dello [ 1] ; made 
English by Mrs. Eliza Haywood. For W. Feales, and J. 
Jackson. 1727. 

Daily Post, 26 June 1727. 
[Another edition?] Mrs. Haywood's Love in its Variety; 
or, Select Novels. For T. Lowndes. 2 s. 6 d. 

Advertised in The Fruitless Enquiry, 1767. 

43. Love-Letters on All Occasions Lately passed between Persons 

of Distinction, Collected by Mrs. Eliza Haywood. For J. 
Brindley, R. Willock, J. Jackson, J. Penn, and F. Cogan. 
1730. 8vo. 

Dedicated to Mrs. Walpole, Relict of the Honourable Galfridus 
Walpole. 

B. M. (1086. f. 27), with the bookplate of Lady Elizabeth 
Germain. Daily Journal, 14 Jan. 1730. 

44. Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots : Being the Secret History of her 

Life, and the Real Causes of all Her Misfortunes. Contain- 
ing a Relation of many particular Transactions in her 
Reign; never yet Published in any Collection. . . . Trans- 
lated from the French, By Mrs. Eliza Haywood. For D. 
Browne Junior; S. Chapman; and J. Woodman and D. 
Lyon. 1725. 8vo. 

Translated from fifteen or sixteen known authors, (B. M. 

Catalogue). 

B. M. (10805. aaa. 19). Daily Post, 2 July 1725. 



192 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, 
etc. 1726. 8vo. 

Advertised in La Belle Assemblee, 1743. 
Columbia. Daily Post, 23 Feb. 1726. 

45. The Masqueraders ; or Fatal Curiosity: being the Secret His- 

tory of a Late Amour. For J. Roberts. 1724. 8vo. 
Dedicated to Colonel Stanley. 

B. M. (12614. d. 14). Daily Post, 10 April 1724. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For J. Roberts. 
1724. 

Daily Journal, 24 April 1724. 
[Another edition.] The Third Edition. For J. Roberts. 
1724. 2 
Included in Secret Histories, etc, 1725. 

Daily Journal, 15 July 1724. 
[Part II.] The Masqueraders; or Fatal Curiosity: Being 
the Secret History of a Late Amour. Part II. For J. 
Roberts. 1725. 8vo. 

Included in the two volumes of Mrs. Haywood's additional 
Works, 1727. 

University of Chicago. Daily Post, 21 Jan. 1725. 

46. Memoirs of a Certain Island Adjacent to the Kingdom of 

Utopia. Written by a Celebrated Author of that Country. 
Now translated into English. For the Booksellers of Lon- 
don and Westminster. 1725, 1726. 8vo. 2 vols. 
Advertised as "in the press" in Mrs. Haywood's Works, 
1724, Vol. I. 

B. M. (12613. g. 18). University of Illinois. (Both 

vols, with Keys.) Vol. I, Daily Post, 8 Sept. 1724. 

Vol. II, Daily Journal, 3 Nov. 1725, with a new ed. 

of Vol. I. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For the Book- 
sellers of London and Westminster. 1726. 8vo. 2 vols. 

Daily Post, 2 Mar. 1726. 

47. Memoirs of the Baron de Brosse, Who was Broke on the 

Wheel In the Reign of Lewis XIV. Containing, An Account 
of his Amours. With Several Particulars relating to the 

2 These were probably bogus editions. Ed. 2 was advertised as 
"just publish M" in The Double Marriage, 1726. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 193 

Wars in those Times. Collected from Authentic Authors, 
and an Original Manuscript. For D. Browne, Jun., and S. 
Chapman. 1725, 1726. 8vo. 

Included in the two volumes of Mrs. Haywood's additional 
Works, 1727. 

B. M. (1201. g. 3). Part I, Daily Post, 23 Dec. 1724. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, 
Jun., and S. Chapman. 1725, 1726. 8vo. 

B. M. (G. 14732/2). 

48. The Mercenary Lover: or, the Unfortunate Heiresses. Being 

a True, Secret History of a City Amour, In a certain Island 
adjacent to the Kingdom of Utopia. Written by the Author 
of Memoirs of the said Island. Translated into English. 
... For N. Dobb. 1726. 8vo. 

B. M. (12611. i. 16). Daily Post, 10 Feb. 1726. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For N. Dobb. 
1726. 

Advertised in Reflections on the Various Effects of Love, 

1726. 
[Another edition.] The Third Edition. By the Author of 
Reflections on the various Effects of Love. ... To which 
is added, The Padlock: Or, No Guard without Virtue. A 
Novel. For N. Dobb. 1728. 12mo. 

Half-title: — "The Mercenary Lover: and the Padlock. Two 
Historical Novels. By E. H." 

B. M. (12316. bbb. 38/3). 

The New Utopia, see Memoirs of a Certain Island. 

49. The Opera of Operas; or Tom Thumb the Great. Alter' d 

from the Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great. For W. 
Rayner. 1733. 8vo. 

Fielding's Tragedy of Tragedies with songs by William 

Hatchett and Eliza Haywood. 

Boston Public Library (Barton Collection). 

The Padlock, see The Mercenary Lover, the third edition. 

50. The Parrot. With a Compendium of the Times. By the 

Authors of The Female Spectator. For T. Gardner. 1746. 
8vo. 
14 



194 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Issued originally in weekly parts, 2 Aug.-4 Oct. 1746. (9 
numbers.) 

B. M. (P. P. 5253. b). Yale. 

51. The Perplex'd Dutchess ; or, Treachery Rewarded : Being some 

Memoirs of the Court of Malfy. In a Letter from a Sicilian 

Nobleman, who had his Residence there, to his Friend in 

London. For J. Roberts. 1728. 8vo. 

Included in the two volumes of Mrs. Haywood's additional 
Works, 1727. The title-page bears a quotation from her 
tragedy, The Fair Captive. 

Daily Post, 2 Oct. 1727. Dobell Catalogue (Mar. 1915). 

[Another edition.] To which is added Innocence Preserv'd. 

A Novel. Dublin: S. Powell, for G. Risk and W. Smith. 

1727. 12mo. 

A. Esdaile, English Tales and Eomances (1912), p. 284. 

52. Persecuted Virtue : Or, The Cruel Lover. A True Secret His- 

tory. Writ at the Request of a Lady of Quality. For J. 
Brindley, and sold by W. Meadows, and H. Whitridge, T. 
Worrall, R. Francklin, J. Watson. 

Advertised as by Mrs. Haywood in Frederick, Duke of Bruns- 

wick-Lunenburgh, 1729. 

Daily Post, 23 Nov. 1728. 

53. Philidore and Placentia: or, L' Amour trop Delicat. By Mrs. 

Haywood. . . . For T. Green, and Sold by J. Roberts. 
1727. 8vo. 
Dedicated to Lady Abergavenny. 

Brown University. Part I, Daily Journal, 24 July 1727. 

54. Poems on Several Occasions. By Mrs. Eliza Haywood. 

Included with no separate title-page in Mrs. Haywood's 
Works, 1724. 

[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, 
jun., and S. Chapman. 1725. 12mo. 

Included with separate title-page and imprint in Secret His- 
tories, etc., 1725. 

55. A Present for a Servant-Maid : or, the Sure Means of gaining 

Love and Esteem. ... To which are Added, Directions for 
going to Market; Also, For Dressing any Common Dish, 
whether Flesh, Fish, or Fowl. With some Rules for Wash- 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 195 

ing, &c. The "Whole calculated for making both the Mis- 
tress and the Maid happy. For T. Gardner. 1743. 8vo. 

B. M. (1037. g. 20). Gentleman's Magazine, June 1743. 
[Another edition.] Dublin: Re-printed by and for George 
Faulkner. 1743. 8vo. 

New York Public Library. 
[Another edition.] Dublin: For George Faulkner. 1744. 
8vo. 

B. M. (8409. d. 8/1). New York Public Library. 
[Another edition.] For T. Gardner. 1745. 8vo. 

Yale. 
[A revision.] A new Present for a Servant-Maid : contain- 
ing Rules for her moral Conduct, both with respect to her- 
self and her Superiors : the whole Art of Cookery, Pickling, 
and Preserving, &c. With Marketing Tables, and Tables 
for casting up Expences, &e. By Mrs. Haywood. Pearch, 
&c. 1771. 12mo. 

Monthly Keview, April 1772. 

56. The Rash Resolve : or, the Untimely Discovery. A Novel. 

In Two Parts. By Mrs. Eliza Haywood. . . . For D. 
Browne, junr.; and S. Chapman. 1724. 8vo. 
Dedicated to Lady Kumney. 

B. M. (recently acquired from the Huth Sale, Part III). 
Daily Journal, 12 Dec. 1723. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne 
junr., and S. Chapman. 1724. 8vo. 

Included with separate title-page and imprint in Mrs. Hay- 
wood's Works, 1724. The third edition is a part of Secret 
Histories, etc., 1725. 

B. M. (12613. c. 26/2). 

57. Reflections on the Various Effects of Love, According to the 

contrary Dispositions of the Persons on whom it operates. 
Illustrated with a great many Examples of the good and bad 
Consequences of that Passion. Collected from the best An- 
cient and Modern Histories. Intermix'd with the latest 
Amours and Intrigues of Persons of the First Rank of both 
Sexes, of a certain Island adjacent to the Kingdom of 
Utopia. Written by the Author of The Mercenary Lover, 



196 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

and Memoirs of the said Island. . . . For N. Dobb. 1726. 
8vo. 

B. M. (635. f. 11/6), incomplete, 16 pages only. Daily 

Journal, 13 April 1726. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For N. Dobb. 
1726. 8vo. 

B. M. (12614. d. 17). 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For J. Millan, 
and sold by J. Roberts, T. Astley, W. Meadows, and H. 
Whitridge, Mrs. Dodd, and Mrs. Graves. In Two Parts. 
1727. 

Daily Journal, 5 July 1727. 

58. The Secret History of the Present Intrigues of the Court of 

Carimania. For the Booksellers of London and Westmin- 
ster. 1727. 8vo. 

Yale. Daily Journal, 24 Sept. 1726. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition Corrected. For 
the Booksellers of London and Westminster. 1727. 8vo. 

B. M. (838. c. 7), with a Key. 

59. Secret Memoirs Of the late Mr. Duncan Campbel, The Fa- 

mous Deaf and Dumb Gentleman. Written By Himself, 
who ordered they should be publish'd after his Decease. To 
which is added, An Appendix, by Way of Vindication of 
Mr. Duncan Campbel, against that groundless Aspersion 
cast upon him, That he but pretended to be Deaf and Dumb. 
For J. Millan ; and J. Chrichley. 1732. 8vo. 
Mrs. Haywood may have had a hand in this production. 
B. M. (10825. bbb. 26). 

60. A Spy upon the Conjurer: or, a Collection Of Surprising 

Stories, With Names, Places, and particular Circumstances 
relating to Mr. Duncan Campbell, commonly known by the 
Name of the Deaf and Dumb Man; and the astonishing 
Penetration and Event of his Predictions. Written to my 

Lord by a Lady, who for more than Twenty Years 

past; has made it her Business to observe all Transactions 
in the Life and Conversation of Mr. Campbell. Sold by 
Mr. Campbell at the Green-Hatch in Buckingham-Court, 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 197 

Whitehall; and at Burton's Cofee-House, Charing Cross. 
1724. 8vo. 

B. M. (G. 13535). Harvard. Daily Post, 19 Mar. 1724. 
[Another edition.] A Spy on the Conjurer : or, a Collection 
Of Surprizing and Diverting Stories, With Merry and In- 
genious Letters. By Way of Memoirs of the Famous Mr. 
Duncan Campbell, demonstrating the astonishing Foresight 
of that Wonderful Deaf and Dumb Man. The Whole being 

Moral and Instructive. Written to my Lord by a Lady, 

who, for Twenty Years past, has made it her Business to 
observe all Transactions in the Life and Conversation of Mr. 
Campbell. Revised by Mrs. Eliza Haywood. The Second 
Edition. For T. Corbet. 1724. 8vo. 

Brown University. Daily Post, 21 Aug. 1724. 
[Another edition.] A Spy upon the Conjurer. . . . Re- 
vised by Mrs. Eliza Haywood. For J. Peele. 1724. 8vo. 

Copy owned by Professor Trent. 
*, [Another edition.] A Spy on the Conjurer. . . . Revised 
by Mrs. Eliz. Haywood. For W. Ellis, J. Brotherton, J. 
Batly, T. Woodward, J. Fox. 1725. 8vo. 
This omits the words "The Second Edition." These four 
issues consist of identical sheets bound up with different 
title-pages. 

B. M. (613. f. 2). Daily Journal, 25 Jan. 1725. 

61. The Surprise : or, Constancy Rewarded. By the Author of 

the Masqueraders ; or, Fatal Curiosity. For J. Roberts. 

1724. 

Dedicated to Sir Bichard Steele. 
Daily Journal, 23 July 1724. 

[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For J. Roberts. 

1724. 

Daily Journal, 7 Sept. 1724. 

[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, 

jun.; and S. Chapman. 1725. 

Included with separate title-page and imprint in Secret His- 
tories, etc., 1725. 

62. The Tea-Table: or, A Conversation between some Polite Per- 

sons of both Sexes, at a Lady's Visiting Day. Wherein are 



198 LIFE AND ROMANCES OP MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Represented The Various Foibles, and Affectations, which 
form the Character of an Accomplished Beau, or Modern 
Fine Lady. Interspersed with several Entertaining and In- 
structive Stories. By Mrs. Eliza Haywood. For J. Roberts. 
1725. 8vo. 

B. M. (635. f. 11/5). Daily Post, 7 May 1725, "just 

published. ' ' 
[Another edition.] The Fourth Edition. London: Printed, 
and Dublin Re-Printed by W. Wilmot for E. Hamilton. 
1725. 8vo. 

Columbia. 
[Part II. ] The Tea-Table: Or, a Conversation between 
some polite Persons of both Sexes. ... By Mrs. Elizabeth 
Haywood. Part II. For J. Roberts. 1725. 8vo. 

Bodl. (Godw. Pamph. 1308). Daily Post, 25 Mar. 1726. 

63. The Unequal Conflict ; or, Nature Triumphant : A Novel. By 

Mrs. Eliza Haywood. For J. Walthoe, and J. Crokatt. 
1725. 8vo. 
For a sequel to The Unequal Conflict, see Fatal Fondness. 

B. M. (recently acquired from the Huth Sale, Part III). 

Yale. Daily Post, 10 Mar. 1725. 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For J. Walthoe. 
1726. 

Daily Journal, 17 Feb. 1726. 

The Unfortunate Princess, see Adventures of Eovaai. 

64. The Virtuous Villager, or Virgin's Victory: Being The Me- 

moirs of a very Great Lady at the Court of France. Written 
by Herself. In which the Artifices of designing Men are 
fully detected and exposed; and the Calamities they bring 
on credulous believing Woman, are particularly related. 
Translated from the Original, by the Author of La Belle 
Assemblee. In Two Volumes. For ' F. Cogan. 1742. 
12mo. 2 vols. 

From the French of Charles de Fieux, Chevalier de Mouhy. 

The Dedication to Mrs. Crawley is signed Eliza Haywood. 
B. M. (12612. dd. 3). 

65. The Wife. By Mira, One of the Authors of the Female Spec- 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 199 

tator, and Epistles for Ladies. For T. Gardner. 1756. 
12mo. 

B. M. (836. c. 5). Harvard. Gentleman's Magazine, 

Dec. 1755. 
[Another edition?] For T. Gardner. 1756. 

B. M. (8416. de. 1). 
[Another edition.] For T. Gardner. 1762. 12mo. 

Arthur Keader Catalogue. 

66. A Wife To be Lett: A Comedy. As it is Acted at the 

Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, By his Majesty's Servants. 
Written by Mrs. Eliza Haywood. For D. Browne junr, 
and S. Chapman. 1724. 8vo. 
Included in Mrs. Haywood's Works, 1724. 

B. M. (12613. c. 26/3). Boston Public Library (Barton 

Collection). 
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne; 
and Sold by J. Osborn. 1729. 12mo. 

New York Public Library. 
.'■ [Another edition.] For W. Feales; And Sold by J. Osborn. 
1735. 12mo. 

B. M. (11775. b. 44). Yale. 
^ [An abridgment.] The Comedy of a Wife to be Lett, or, 
the Miser Cured, compressed into Two Acts, by Ann Min- 
ton. For A. Seale; Ann Minton; and all booksellers. 1802. 
8vo. 

B. M. (11779. b. 84). 

67. The Young Lady. No. 1, 2, 3. By Euphrosine. For T. 

Gardner. 2d. each. 

Euphrosine, like Mira, was the name of one of the Female 
Spectator Club. This was probably Mrs. Haywood's last 

piece of writing. 

Gentleman's Magazine, Jan. 1756. 

III. Works Attributed to Mrs. Haywood 

68. The History of Cornelia. For A. Millar. 1750. 12mo. 

Arthur Reader Catalogue. 

69. Matrimony, a Novel, containing a series of Interesting Adven- 

tures. 1755. 8vo. 2 vols. 



200 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

A re-issue of The Marriage Act (1754) by John Shebbeare 
(D. N. B.). 

Arthur Eeader Catalogue. 

70. Memoirs of the Court of Lilliput. Written by Captain Gul- 

liver. Containing an Account of the Intrigues, and some 
other particular Transactions of that Nation, omitted in the 
two Volumes of his Travels. Published by Lucas Bennet. 
... For J. Roberts. 1727. 8vo. 
Attributed to Mrs. Haywood by Pope. 

B. M. (12510. aaa. 5). Daily Journal, 11 Jan. 1727. A 
second edition was advertised for Roberts on 6 Feb. 1727 
(Daily Post). 

71. The Pleasant and Delightful History of Gillian of Croydon: 

Containing, Her Birth and Parentage: Her first Amour, 
with the sudden Death of her Sweetheart: Her leaving her 
Father's House In Disguise, and becoming Deputy to a 
Country Midwife; with a very odd and humoursome Adven- 
ture before a Justice of the Peace, for screening a Child 
under her Hoop-petticoat : Her discovery of a Love-Intrigue 
between her Mistress's Daughter, and a perjur'd, false- 
hearted Young-man, which she relates in the tragical History 
of William and Margaret : Her Account of a Country Wed- 
ding in Kent; with several merry Passages which attended 
it. Illustrated with suitable Cuts. 

The Whole done much after the same Method as those cele- 
brated Novels, by Mrs. Eliza Haywood. For A. Bettes- 
worth. 1727. 12mo. 
A chap-book, not by Mrs. Haywood. 
B. M. (12410. a. 28). 

IV. Works Published by Mrs. Haywood 

At the end of the first volume of The Virtuous Villager, 1742, 
occurs the following advertisement: 

New Books, sold by Eliza Haywood, Publisher, at the Sign of 
Fame in Covent-Garden. 

I. The Busy-Body; or Successful Spy; being the entertaining 
History of Mons. Bigand. . . . The whole containing great Va- 
riety of Adventures, equally instructive and diverting. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 201 

II. Anti-Pamela, or Feign'd Innocence detected, in a Series of 
Syrena's Adventures: A Narrative which has really its Founda- 
tion in Truth and Nature. . . . Publish'd as a necessary Caution 
to all young Gentlemen. The Second Edition. 

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST 

The Writings of Mrs. Haywood with Some Contemporary 
Works 3 

1719 Afpr. 25 Defoe: Robinson Crusoe, Pt. 1. 

Love in Excess, Pts. I, II. 

Mrs. Manley: The Power of Love, in Seven 
Novels (d. 1720). 

Love in Excess, Pt. III. 

Defoe: Duncan Campbell. 

Tr. Letters from a Lady of Quality to a Cheva- 
lier (d. 1721). 

The Fair Captive (acted). 

Defoe: Moll Flanders. 

The British Recluse. 

The Injur'd Husband (d. 1723). 

Idalia: or, the Unfortunate Mistress. 

Works, Vols. I, II, III. 

A Wife to be Lett (acted). Published Aug. 20. 

Lasselia. 

The Rash Resolve (d. 1724). 

Works, Vol. IV. 

(Poems on Several Occasions.) 

Defoe: The Fortunate Mistress (Roxana). 

A Spy upon the Conjurer. 

The Masqueraders, Pt. I. 

The Fatal Secret. 

The Surprise. 

The Arragonian Queen. 
3 Works by other writers are indicated by italics ; doubtful attribu- 
tions by (?). Works never separately issued are enclosed in paren- 
theses. Translations are marked Tr. 



1720 


Feb. 


25 




Apr. 


30 




Dec. 


26 


1721 


'*Mar. 


4 


1722 


Jan. 


27 




• Apr. 


16 




Dec. 


24 


1723 


June 


27 




Aug. 


12 




Aug. 


12 




Nov. 


1 




Dec. 


16 


1724 


Jan. 


31 




Mar. 


14 




Mar. 


19 




Apr. 


10 




May 


16 




July 


23 




Aug. 


11 



Sept. 


8 


Oct. 


16 


Oct. 


26 


Dee. 


9 


Dee. 


23 



202 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Aug. 26 Tr. La Belle Assembled, Pt. I. 

Memoirs of a Certain Island, Vol. I (d. 1725). 

Bath-Intrigues (d. 1725). 

Tr. La Belle Assembled, Pt. II. 

Tr. La Belle Assembled, Pt. III. 

Secret Histories, Novels and Poems, 4 vols. 

(d. 1725). 
(Fantomina.) 
(The Force of Nature.) 
Dec. 23 Memoirs of the Baron de Brosse, Pt. I. (d. 

1725). 
L725 Jan. 21 The Masqueraders, Pt. II. 

Tr. The Lady's Philosopher's Stone. 
The Unequal Conflict. 
The Tea-Table, Pt. I. 
The Dumb Projector. 
Fatal Fondness. 
Mary Stuart. 

Memoirs of a Certain Island, Vol. II (d. 1726). 
1726 The Distressed Orphan. 

Defoe: The Friendly Daemon. 
The Mercenary Lover. 
The Tea-Table, Pt. II. 
Reflections on the Various Effects of Love. 
The City Jilt. 

Tr. La Belle Assembled, Vol. II. 
The Double Marriage. 
The Court of Carimania (d. 1727). 
Letters from the Palace of Fame (d. 1727). 
Swift: Travels of Lemuel Gulliver. 
Cleomelia (d. 1727). 
i The Court of Lilliput (?). 
The Fruitless Enquiry. 
The Life of Madam de Villesache. 
Tr. Love in its Variety. 
Philidore and Placentia, Pt. I. 
The Perplex'd Dutchess (d. 1728). 



Jan. 


21 


Jan. 


22 


Mar. 


10 


May 


7 


May 


10 


May 


19 


July 


2 


Nov. 


3 


Feb. 


10 


Mar. 


25 


Apr. 


13 


June 


24 


July 


27 


Aug. 


5 


Sept. 


24 


Sept. 


30 


Oct. 




Dec. 


5 


Jan. 


9 


Feb. 


24 


Apr. 


26 


June 


26 


July 


24 


Oct. 


2 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 203 

Nov. 2 Secret Histories and Novels printed since the 

publication of her Works, 2 vols. 
1728 (The Padlock.) 

Pope: The Dunciad. 

The Agreeable Caledonian, Pt. I. 

(Irish Artifice) in The Female Dunciad. 

Tr. The Disguis'd Prince, Pt. I. 

Persecuted Virtue. 

Select Collection of Novels and Histories, 6 

vols. (?). 
The Agreeable Caledonian, Pt. II. 
The Fair Hebrew. 
Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburgh 

(acted). 
Tr. The Disguis'd Prince, Pt. II. 
Love-Letters on all Occasions. 
Secret Memoirs of the Late Mr. Duncan Camp- 

bel (?). 

1733 May 31 The Opera of Operas (acted). Published in 

June. 

1734 Tr. L'Entretien des Beaux Esprits, 2 vols. 
1736 July Adventures of Eovaai. 

1740 Nov. The Unfortunate Princess (d. 1741). 
Nov. Richardson : Pamela, Vols. I, II. 

1741 June Anti-Pamela (?) Published by Mrs. Haywood. 
Nov. Tr. The Busy-Body; or Successful Spy, 2 vols. 

(?) Published by Mrs. Haywood. 

1742 Tr. The Virtuous Villager, 2 vols. 

Feb. Fielding: Adventures of Joseph Andrews, 2 

vols. 
A Present for a Servant-Maid. 
The Fortunate Foundlings. 
Sarah Fielding: David Simple. 
The Female Spectator (published monthly) 4 

vols. 



May 


28 


June 


21 


Aug. 




Aug. 


17 


Nov. 


23 


1729 




Jan. 


10 


Jan. 


29 


ri Mar. 


4 


May 


14 


1730 Jan. 


14 


1732 





1743 


June 


1744 


Feb. 




May 


1744 


\ Apr. 


1746 


May 


1746 


Aug. 2 




Oct. 4 



The Parrot (published weekly). 



204 LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD 

Richardson: Clarissa, Vols. I, II. 

Smollett: Adventures of Roderick Random, 2 vols. 

Richardson: Clarissa, Vols. Ill, IV. 

Life's Progress through the Passions. 

Richardson: Clarissa, complete. 

Fielding: History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, 

6 vols. 
Dalinda. 

Epistles for the Ladies, 2 vols. (d. 1749^0). 
A Letter from H G g, Esq. 

\ Johnson: The Rambler. 

The History of Cornelia (?). 

Mrs. Lennox: The Life of Harriot Stuart, 2 vols. 

Smollett : Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, 4 vols. 

The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, 4 vols. 

Fielding: Amelia, 4 vols. 

Mrs. Lennox: The Female Quixote, 2 vols. 

The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy, 3 

vols. (d. 1753). 
1753 Nov. Richardson: Sir Charles Grandison, Vols. I, II, 

III, IV. 
Richardson : Sir Charles Grandison, Vols. V, VI. 
The Invisible Spy, 4 vols. (d. 1755). 
The Wife (d. 1756). 
The Husband. 

The Young Lady, Nos. 1, 2, 3, ( ?). 
25 Mrs. Haywood died. 
Clementina. 

A New Present for a Servant Maid (d. 1771). 
The History of Leonora Meadowson, 2 vols. 

ADDENDA 
p. 185. The Female Spectator. Glasgow. 1775. 4 vols. 12mo. 

Catalogue of Cadmus Book Shop, New York, 
p. 180. Etourdie ou Histoire de Mis Betsy Tatless, Traduite de 
1 'Anglois. Paris. 1754. 3 parts in 2 vols. 

Bound for Mme du Barry, with her arms impressed on the 
sides. Southeby, Wilkinson, and Hodge Sale, Dec. 11, 1913. 



1747 


Nov. 


1748 


Jan. 




Apr. 




Apr. 




Dee. 


1749 


Feb. 




June 




Nov. 


1750 


Jan. 


1750 


Mar. 


1752 


Mar. 


1750 


Apr. 




Dec. 


1751 


Feb. 




Oct. 




Dee. 


1752 


Mar. 




Dee. 





Dee. 


1754 


Nov. 


1755 


Dec. 


1756 






Jan. 




Feb. 


1768 


May 


1772 


Apr. 


1778 


Mar. 



INDEX 



Addison, Joseph, 23, 113, 139 
Adventures of Eovaai, 21, 99-104, 

105, 129, 177 
Adventures of Lindamira, 137 
Agreeable Caledonian, The, 14, 38, 

70-2, 169, 178 
Amelia, 158 
Anti-Pamela, 22, 201 
Applebee, E., 89, 90 
Apprentice's Monitor, 146 
Arabian Nights, The, 31 
Arbuthnot, John, 115 
Arcadia, The Countess of Pem- 
broke's, 40, 48 
Argyle, John, Duke of, 115 
Arragonian Queen, The, 13, 38, 

73-5, 178 
Astell, Mary, 173, 174 
Atalantis, Mrs. Manley's New, 13, 

21, 106, 111 
Aubin, Mrs Penelope, 27, 38, 39, 

66, 174, 175 
Austen, Jane, 26, 175 
Author to be Let, An, 125, 126 
Authors of the Town, The, 109, 110 
Bandello, Matteo, 31 
Barber, John, 38, 110 
Barker, Mrs. Jane, 5, 11, 27, 175 
Bath-Intrigues, 111-2, 114, 178 
Beggar's Opera, The, 10 
Behn, Mrs. Aphra, 1, 5, 35, 69, 116, 

137, 173, 174 
Belle Assemblee, La, 15, 28, 111, 

129, 139, 179 
Bellenden, Mary, 115 
Bennet, Lucas, 119 



Bent, W., vii 

Beraldus and Celemena, 139 

Betsy Thoughtless, see History of 

Mis3 
Bettesworth, Arthur, 127 
Biasing World, Description of a 

New World called the, 173 
Boccaccio, Giovanni, 28 
Boileau-Despreaux, Nicolas, 28, 174 
Bond, William, 79, 80, 84, 86, 119 
Boursault, Edme, 11 
Boyd, Mrs. Elizabeth, 76 
Boyle, Robert, 138 
British Becluse, The, 12, 39, 44-5, 

90, 92, 112, 180 
Brown, Thomas, 113, 137 
Browne, Daniel, Jr., 12 
Budgell, Eustace, 110 
Burney, Fanny, 26, 161, 162, 175 
Busy-Body, The, 22, 200 
Butler, Mrs. Sarah, 5 
Campbell, Duncan, 21, 77-89 
Capricious Lover, The, 30 
Captain Singleton, 39, 63 
Careless, Betsy, 158 
Carimania, Court of, see Secret 

History 
Castera, Louis Adrien Duperron de, 

29 
Catholic Poet, The, 122 
Centlivre, Mrs. Susannah, 5, 36, 

87, 116, 122 
Cervantes, Miguel de, 17, 30 
Changeling, The, 38 
Chapman, Samuel, 12, 105, 121 
Charke, Mrs. Charlotte, 69, 158 



205 



206 



INDEX 



Chesterfield, Lord, 102 

Chetwood, William Kufus, 5, 12, 

121 
Chevalier, The Young, 25, 98 
Cibber, Theophilus, 7 
Citizen of the World, The, 113 
City Jilt, The, 13, 38, 46, 180 
Clarke, Dr. Samuel, 2 
Clarissa Harlowe, 48, 137, 175 
Clelie, 27 

Clementina, 26, 71, 169, 178 
Cleomelia, 30, 38, 63, 92, 169, 181 
Cleopdtre, 27 
Clio, see Fowke, Martha 
Clive, Mrs. Kitty, 10 
Codrus; or the Dunciad dissected, 

123 
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 164 
Colonel Jacque, 72 
Comedy of a Wife to be Lett, The, 

8 
Concanen, Matthew, 16, 126 
Consolidator, The, 113 
Cooke, Thomas, 125, 126 
Corinna, see Thomas, Mrs. 
Court Intrigues, 111 
Craftsman, The, 84, 85 
Curliad, The, 123 
Curll, Edmund, 39, 77, 121, 123, 

124, 125 
Cursory View of the History of 

Lilliput, A, 119 
Dalinda, 94, 181 
Danger of Giving Way to Passion, 

The, 12 
D'Anvers, Caleb, 85 
David Simple, 171 
Davys, Mrs. Mary, 5, 173 
Dawson, Jemmy, 145 
Decameron, The, 31, 34 
Dedications, 13 



Defiant Heroines, 44-6 

Defoe, Daniel, 12, 76, 77-91, 119, 

126, 175 
Delany, Mrs., 14 
Dennis, John, 125, 126 
Desjardins, Hortense, see Villedieu, 

Mme de 
Diable Boiteux, Le, 168 
Discourse concerning Writings of 

this Nature, 136 
Disguis'd Prince, The, 29, 181 
Distress'd Orphan, The, 38, 182 
Dobson, Austin, 159 
Doddington, George Bubb, 11 
Double Marriage, The, 39, 41, 45-6, 

93, 182 
Drake, Dr. Nathan, 144 
Drury Lane Theater, 7, 10 
Dryden, John, 38 
Duchess of Malfi, The, 112 
Dufresny, Charles Eiviere, 113 
Dumb Projector, The, 21, 83-4, 87, 

182 
Dunciad, The, 12, 21, 23, 117-29 
Dunlop, J. C, 97, 161 
Durand-Bedacier, Mme, 96 
Entretien des Beaux Esprits, L', 

28, 129, 182 
Epigrams on the Dunciad, 126 
Epistles for the Ladies, 23, 131, 

132, 137-9, 183 
Espion turc, L', 113 
Euphrosine, 141 
Evelina, 26, 161, 162 
Exemplary Novels, 30 
Exploralibus, 129, 168 
Fair Captive, The, 6, 8, 28, 37, 

110, 128, 183 
Fair Hebrew, The, 39, 72-3, 93, 

183 
Fair Jilt. The, 69 



207 



Fantomina, 39, 58-9, 92, 183 
Fatal Fondness, 60, 62, 184 
Fatal Secret, The, 15, 19, 49-52, 53, 

112, 184 
Female Dunces, The, 18 
Female Dunciad, The, 39, 123, 124, 

125 
Female Foundling, The, 153 
Female Page, The, see Happy Un- 
fortunate, The 
Female Spectator, The, 23, 24, 87, 

112, 130, 131, 132, 141-4, 184 
Ferdinand, Count Fathom, 163 
Fidelia, 84 
Fielding, Henry, 101, 154, 159, 165, 

171, 175 
Fielding, Sarah, 171. 
Fieux, Charles de, Chevalier de 

Mouhy, 22, 23, 151 
Force of Nature, The, 66-7, 185 
Fortunate Countrymaid, The, 152 
Fortunate Foundlings, The, 23, 95, 

130, 153-5, 165, 185 
Fortunate Mistress, The, 72, 82, 

89, 90 
Foundling, The, 153 
Foundling Hospital, The, 152 
Foundling Hospital for Wit and 

Humour, The, 153 
Fowke, Martha, 87, 107-10, 128 
Fowler, Eobert, 2 
Foxton, Mr., 123, 126 
Frederick, Duke of BrunswicTc- 

Lunenburgh, 8, 14, 125, 129, 185 
Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales, 

8 
Friendly Dcemon, The, 84, 85, 86 
Fruitless Enquiry, The, 14, 15, 31-3, 

185 
Gardner, Thomas, 23 
George II, 114, 115 



Germain, Lady Elizabeth, 14, 32 
Gillian of Croydon, The Pleasant 

and Delightful History of, 127, 

200 
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 165 
Goldsmith, Oliver, 113 
Gomez, Mme de, 15, 173 
Goring, Henry, 98 
Gosse, Edmund, 13 
Griffith, Mrs. Elizabeth, 32 
Hackney, Iscariot, 126 
Handel, George Frederick, 152 
Happy Unfortunate, The, 76 
Hatchett, William, 6, 9 
Haymarket Theater, 9, 10 
Haywood, Charles, 2 
Haywood, Mrs. Eliza 

Birth, 2 

Death, 26 

Elopement, 3 

Parentage, 2 

Plays, 6-10 

Publisher, 22, 200-1 

Stage Career, 5-6 
Haywood, Valentine, 2 
Hearne, Mrs. Mary, 5, 15 
Henley, Lady Elizabeth, 14 
Henley, Orator, 126 
Henrietta, 175 
Heros de Boman, Les, 28 
Hervey, Lord, 102 
Hill, Aaron, 6, 11, 15, 22, 80, 106, 

108, 110, 119, 140 
History of Betty Barnes, The, 146 
History of Cornelia, The, 199 
History of Jemmy and Jenny Jes- 

samy, The, 25, 60, 163-7, 186 
History of Leonora Meadowson, 

The, 26, 169-70, 186 



208 



INDEX 



History of the Life and Adventures 

of Mr. Duncan Campbell, The, 

77-9, 84, 87 
History of the Life and Beign of 

Mary Stuart, 97 
History of Miss Betsy Thought- 
less, The, 23, 25, 158-63, 171, 186 
Hogarth, William, 150, 152 
Howard, Henrietta, Countess of 

Suffolk, 115, 116, 119 
Humphrey Clinker, 167 
Hurst, Capt., 6 

Husband, The, 132, 149-50, 187 
Idalia, 12, 15, 37,47-9,89, 129, 187 
Illustre Parisienne, L', 29 
Injur' d Husband, The, 12, 67-9, 

92, 187 
Intrigues galantes de la cour de 

France, 96 
Invisible Spy, The, 25, 130, 167-9, 

188 
Irish Artifice, 39, 123-4, 126, 188 
Ivanhoe, 75 
Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy, see 

History of 
Johnson, Samuel, 60, 139, 142, 175 
Joseph Andrews, 175 
Justicia, 81, 83 

Key to the Dunciad, 121, 123 
Kirkall, Elisha, 121 
Lady's Philosopher's Stone, The, 

29, 188 
La Faye, Charles de, 12 
La Fayette, Mme de, 28, 173 
La Force, Mile de, 173 
Lang, Andrew, 98 
Lampe, Frederick, 10 
Lasselia, 12, 17, 19, 40, 56-7, 188 
Lennox, Mrs. Charlotte, 175 
Letter from H G , 

Esq., A, 25, 97, 189 



Letters from a Lady of Quality 

to a Chevalier, 11, 12, 29, 132, 

134-6, 137, 139, 189 
Letters from the Palace of Fame, 

112-3, 189 
Letters written by Mrs. Manley, 

137 
Lettres nouvelles de M. Boursault, 

134 
Lettres Persanes, 113 
Lettres Portugaises, 29, 131 
Life of Harriot Stuart, The, 175 
Life of Madam de Villesache, The, 

53-5, 190 
Life's Progress through the Pas- 
sions, 155^7, 190 
Lincoln's Inn Fields Theater, 6, 8 
Lodge, Thomas, 42 
Lombe, Sir Thomas, 14 
Lounsbury, T. E., 127, 129 
Love in Excess, 12, 13, 15, 35-7, 

41, 89, 92, 106, 133, 134, 155, 190 
Love in its Variety, 31, 191 
Love-Letters on all Occasions, 129, 

133, 136-7, 191 
Lover's Week, The, 15 
Love's Posy, 137 
Lucius, 110 
Lucky Bape, The, 30 
Lumley, Lady Frances, 13 
Mallet, David, 128 
Manley, Mrs. Mary, 1, 4, 5, 15,. 30, 

35, 105, 110, 111, 116, 173, 174 
Marana, G. P., 113 
Marivaux, Pierre Carlet de Cham- 

blain de, 23, 152 
Marlborough, Sarah, Duchess of, 

104 
Marriage-Act, The, 200 
Marriage a la Mode, 150, 158 



INDEX 



209 



Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, 97, 

191 
Masqueraders, The, 14, 53, 112, 192 
Matrimony , a Novel, 199 
Memoirs of the Baron de Brosse, 

20, 69-70, 192 
Memoirs of a Cavalier, 86, 154 
Memoirs of a Certain Island, 21, 

81, 105-11, 113, 114, 126, 134, 

192 
Memoirs of the Court of Lilliput, 

119-20, 200 
Memoirs of Europe in the Eighth 

Century, 73 
Memoirs of Miss Sydney Biddulph, 

60 
Mercenary Lover, The, 15, 39, 52-3, 

93, 94, 128, 193 
Minton, Ann, 8 
Mira, 129 

Moll Flanders, 66, 69, 82, 89 
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, 13, 

111, 116, 163, 173 
Moore, George, 153 
Moore-Smith, James, 125 
Morris, Bezaleel, 125 
Morte D' Arthur, 72 
Mouche, La, 22, 200 
Mr. Campbell's Pacquet, 79 
Newcastle, Duchess of, 173 
Ochihatou, 101-3 
O'Hara, Kane, 10 
Old Mortality, 165 
Opera of Operas, 10, 129, 193 
Oriental letters, 113 
Oriental tales, 32 
Orinda, The Matchless, 4 
Oroonoko, 39 
Osborne, Thomas, 11, 121 
Padlock, The, 57-8, 193 
Pamela, 137, 145, 152. 175 



Parrot, The, 144-5, 193 
Parthenissa, 40, 175 
Paysanne Parvenue, La, 22 
Peregrine Pickle, 72, 154 
Perplex 'd Dutchess, The, 112, 194 
Persecuted Virtue, 93, 194 
Peterborough, Lord, 115 
Philidore and Placentia, 15, 38, 42, 

63-6, 194 
Pierre philosophale des dames, La, 

29 
Pit, Journalist, 126 
Pix, Mrs, Mary, 5, 122 
Plain Dealer, The, 80, 106 
Pleasures of the Imagination, The, 

142 
Poems on Several Occasions, 194 
Political Foundling, The, 152 
Polly Honeycombe, 106 
Pompey the Little, 165 
Pope, Alexander, 5, 21, 40, 115-30 
Popiad, The, 123 
Present for a Servant-Maid, A, 

130, 146-7, 194 
Pretender, The, 98, 99 
Princesse de Cleves, La, 96, 173 
Prude, The, 15 
Quin, James, 6 
Rape of the Lock, The, 134 
Bash Resolve, The, 12, 15, 39, 59- 

60, 106, 195 
Eeeve, Clara, 130 
Reflections on the Various Effects 

of Love, 56, 132, 140-1, 195 
Religious Courtship, The, 13 
Restoration comedy, 35 
Rich, John, 6 
Richardson, Samuel, 23, 26, 152, 

163, 167, 171, 175 
Rival Father, The, 6, 9 
Rival Modes, The, 126 



210 



INDEX 



Boberts, James, 12, 112 

'Robinson Crusoe, 86, 89 

Eosalynde, 42 

Rowe, Mrs. Elizabeth, 138 

Eowe, Nicholas, 4 

Roxana, see Fortunate Mistress, 

The 
Sappho, 3 
Savage, Richard, 15, 16, 106, 108, 

109, 110, 121, 125, 126 
Scott, Sir Walter, 26, 164 
Select Collection of Novels and 

Histories, Mrs. Haywood's, 177 
Secret Histories, Novels and Poems, 

12, 94, 129, 176 
Secret History of Mama Oello, 

The, 101 
Secret History of the Present In- 
trigues of the Court of Cari- 

mania, The, 21, 114-5, 118, 122, 

126, 196 
Secret Memoirs of the late Mr. 

Duncan Campbel, 85-9, 129, 196 
Shadwell, Thomas, 5 
Shakespeare Restored, 117 
Shebbeare, John, 200 
Sloane, Sir Hans, 23 
Smollett, George Tobias, 159, 165 

171, 175 
South Sea bubble, 106, 110 
Specimens of British Poetesses 

139 
Spectator, The, 13, 77, 85, 141 

142, 143, 175 
Spy upon the Conjurer, A, 21 

80-3, 85, 88, 89, 91, 196 
Stage-Coach Journey to Exeter, A 

137 
Stanley, Col., 14 



Statesman's Progress, The, 101 
Steele, Richard, 3, 4, 14, 18, 59, 

113 
Sterling, James, 16, 18 
Supernatural Philosopher, The, 79, 

84 
Surprise, The, 18, 59, 112, 197 
Swift, Jonathan, 115 
Tatler, The, 3, 77, 139 
Tea-Table, The, 132, 139-40, 197 
Thackeray, William Makepeace, 

164 
Theobald, Lewis, 117, 125, 126 
Thomas, Mrs., 118, 122, 123 
Time's Telescope, 89 
Timon of Athens, 5 
Tom Jones, 66, 153, 155, 157 
Tragedy of Tragedies, 9 
Turkish Spy, The, 113 
Unequal Conflict, The, 39, 60-1, 

93, 198 
Unfortunate Princess, The, 99, 

129. 177 
Utopia, see Memoirs of a Certain 

Island 
Venice Preserved, 38 
Villedieu, Mme de, 1, 28, 96, 173 
Virtuous Villager, The, 22, 129, 

151-2, 198 
Walpole, Horace, 174 
Walpole, Sir Robert, 101-4 
Welsted, Leonard, 125, 126 
Wife, The, 132, 141, 147-9, 150, 

198 
Wife to be Lett, A, 6, 7, 199 
Woolston, Thomas, 126 
Works, Mrs. Haywood's, 176 
Yonge, Sir William, 14 
Young Lady, The, 141, 199 



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